Summary and Policy Implications: Analyses of Medicaid Financing for Disabled and High Cost Children

The Congress, HHS, and other federal agencies have expressed considerable interest in the adequacy of current programs and policies affecting severely disabled children, particularly those who are technology dependent and whose health and medical care place catastrophic financing and caregiving burdens on their families. Medicaid tape-to-tape and other data were used to estimate the numbers of children experiencing catastrophic health care expenses, the level of expenditures and sources of payment, and their service utilization patterns. This report summarizes the various analyses that were performed with data from California, Georgia, Michigan, and Tennessee. [26 PDF pages]