An Extent of Children’s Health Coverage: Medicaid, CHIP, and Beyond

This article examines children's health coverage today and explores the ways and means to ensure its financial sustainability and the factors associated with it. As extensively argued, reductions in children's coverage would lead to decreased access to care and other long-term effects for children and increase the financial burden on states and providers. It also suggests that reductions in children’s coverage could have broader implications and long-term negative effects on their health, education, and eventually on their financial success as adults. However, despite the decades of progress, mostly bolstered by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a new funding mechanism needs to be sought to safeguard the coverage and address the rapidly growing uninsured rate among children. This article further analyzes the pros and cons of these efforts using comprehensive statistical analysis.