CHIPRA Mandated Evaluation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program: Final Findings

This report presents findings from an evaluation of CHIP mandated by CHIPRA and patterned after an earlier evaluation. Some of the evaluation findings are at the national level, while others focus on the 10 states selected for more intensive study: Alabama, California, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. The evaluation included a large survey conducted in 2012 of CHIP enrollees and disenrollees in the 10 states, and Medicaid enrollees and disenrollees in three of these states. It also included case studies conducted in each of the 10 survey states in 2012 and a national telephone survey of CHIP administrators conducted in early 2013. Data from the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey were analyzed to document national coverage trends from 1997 to 2012. Together with Medicaid, CHIP has helped fuel a decline in the number of uninsured children from 11.4 million (15 percent of children) in 1997 to 6.6 million (9 percent of children) in 2012. As of March 2014, 8.13 million children were enrolled in CHIP at some point in FFY 2013.