Skip to main content

State Children's Health Insurance Program: Program Structure, Enrollment and Expenditure Experiences, and Outreach Approaches for States That Cover Adults

GAO-08-50 Published: Nov 26, 2007. Publicly Released: Dec 20, 2007.
Jump To:
Skip to Highlights

Highlights

In 2006 about 4.5 million individuals were enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Congress created SCHIP with the goal of significantly reducing the number of low-income uninsured children. Under certain circumstances, states may also cover adults, and in June 2006 about 349,000 adults were enrolled. Each state receives an annual allotment of federal funds, available as a federal match based on the state's expenditures. Generally, states have 3 years to use each fiscal year's allotment, after which unspent federal funds may be redistributed. Congress initially authorized SCHIP for 10 years, from 1998 through 2007, and provided approximately $40 billion for that period. GAO examined (1) how 10 states that cover adults--parents, childless adults, or both--in SCHIP structured their programs; (2) these states' enrollment and expenditure experiences for adults, which GAO considered in the context of those for all other SCHIP populations (children and pregnant women); and (3) the approaches these states adopted to attract all eligible individuals. To accomplish this, GAO reviewed 10 states that covered adults in SCHIP as of 2007. GAO interviewed officials in the 10 states; reviewed states' 2006 annual reports and information available on states' Web sites; and analyzed enrollment and expenditure data obtained primarily from the 10 states, as well as from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and published sources.

Full Report

GAO Contacts

Office of Public Affairs

Topics

Child health servicesData integrityEligibility criteriaFederal fundsstate relationsHealth care costsHealth care programsHealth care reformHealth care servicesHealth insuranceMedicareProgram evaluationProgram managementState programsStatistical data