SCHIP: It Works

The State Children's Health Insurance Program

SCHIP: An Investment in Our Nation's Children
Since 1997, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has provided health coverage to children whose parents work but cannot afford or are not offered health insurance. Because of SCHIP, more than 7 million children can now see a doctor when they are sick and get the health care they need to stay healthy.1

Since SCHIP began 10 years ago, the program has effectively reduced the number of children living without health insurance by more than a third.2 SCHIP has also provided coverage for children at a time when the number of uninsured adults has been on the rise.3

Ensuring that America's kids have the health coverage they need is an important investment in our country's future. Children with health coverage are better prepared to learn in school and succeed in life.4 They are also more likely to get the care they need when they need it.5 An evaluation of SCHIP showed that children who enrolled in SCHIP had fewer asthma-related attacks and had significant improvements in the quality of care they received.6

Percentage of Children Under Age 18 Without Health Insurance, 1994-2006


Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from the Current Population Survey, March 1995-2007 Supplements. Note: 1994-2003 data are adjusted for Census correction announced in March 2007.

There's More Work to Be Done
Despite the success of SCHIP, there are more than 9 million children living without health insurance—more than the total number of kids enrolled in the first and second grades in U.S. public schools.7 Most uninsured kids come from families in which a parent works full time.8 Children who are uninsured suffer the consequences:

  • Uninsured children are more than three times as likely as insured kids not to visit a doctor in the course of a year.9
  • Uninsured children are less likely to receive care for childhood illnesses such as sore throats, earaches and asthma.10
  • More than half (53%) of all uninsured kids did not have a "well-child" check up in the past year—more than double the rate of kids with insurance.11

Go to www.CoverTheUninsured.org to find out more about children's health coverage and what you can do to get America's kids covered.

Sources

1 U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. SCHIP Every Enrolled Year Graph. February 2008.

2Ibid.

3Zuckerman S and Cook A. "The Role of Medicaid and SCHIP as an Insurance Safety Net." Washington, DC: Urban Institute, August 2006.

4Institute of Medicine. From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2000.

5"Covering Health Issues 2006." Alliance for Health Reform.

6Szilagyi PG, Dick AW, Klein JD, et al. "Improved Asthma Care After Enrollment in the State Children's Health Insurance Program in New York." Pediatrics, 117(2): 486-96, February 2006.

7National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics 2005, Table 34, "Enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools, by level, grade, and state or jurisdiction." Fall 2003.

8Employee Benefit Research Institute Estimates from the March Current Population Survey, 2006 Supplement.

9State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), "Protecting America's Future: A State-by-State Look at SCHIP & Uninsured Kids" August 2007.

10American College of Physicians – American Society of Internal Medicine. "No Health Insurance? It's Enough to Make You Sick!" 2000.

11State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), "Protecting America's Future: A State-by-State Look at SCHIP & Uninsured Kids" August 2007.

Please note that EBRI's analysis defines children as individuals ages 0-17, whereas other sources may define children as ages 0-18. This difference accounts for the variance between the reported numbers of uninsured children, depending on the source and method of analysis.

 

Other Related Fact Sheets

SCHIP: Overview

Medicaid