Success of SCHIP is incomplete

State focus on outreach and enrollment gives way to subtle changes that hurt eligibility in the children's health insurance program.

By Joel B. Finkelstein, AMNews staff. Aug. 18, 2003.

Washington -- The State Children's Health Insurance Program has been successful in expanding coverage to low-income families, but may be losing momentum when millions of children still lack insurance, according to recent surveys.

About 1.8 million more children had health insurance in 2002 than in 1999, shows a survey by the Urban Institute. While more than 17 million children are now covered by SCHIP or Medicaid, there are still 7.8 million children without insurance. About 4 million of them are eligible for one of the two programs, although often their parents don't know it.

"Because of SCHIP and Medicaid, more children than ever have health care," said U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona, MD. Health insurance means access to preventive services for these children.

"Seventeen million children ... are eligible to get checkups, hearing tests, vision screenings and the yucky pink medicine that they all hate but their parents know is good for them," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which sponsored the survey.

For uninsured children, life is a very different story. Their poor health affects not only their physical well-being but also their abilities to learn and play and generally be normal children, Dr. Carmona said.

"Any given night in the ER, moms and dads bring in little children suffering from ear infections, asthma and many other preventable conditions," he said. "I treated so many kids in the ER who should have been seen by a family doctor or pediatrician weeks or even months before."