Covering Uninsured Children and their Parents: Estimated Costs and Number of Newly Insured

Abstract

The Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) supplies $20.4 billion over 5 years and nearly $50 billion over 10 years to extend health insurance to uninsured children with family incomes up to 200 percent of poverty. This article analyzes the March 1997 Current Population Survey, estimating the number of children likely to be eligible for CHIP or currently eligible for Medicaid. Of the 8.6 million parents of uninsured children, four out of five were uninsured at the time of the survey. Expanding coverage to parents as well as children could make program participation more attractive and simplify the enrollment process. If 75 percent of uninsured parents of CHIP eligible children participated, 1.7 million parents could be insured, costing federal and state governments $4 billion. Another 3.4 million parents would be insured by expanding Medicaid to cover uninsured parents of Medicaid-eligible children.

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