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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Miriam Levitt, PhD, Director of Research, Canadian Institute of Child Health, 384 Bank Street, Suite 300, Ottawa, ON K2P 1Y4, Canada, (613) 230-8838, mlevitt@cich.ca, Christina M.L. Kelton, PhD, Department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology, Pennsylvania State University, 6-D Armsby Building, Universisty Park, PA 16802, and Margaret K. Pasquale, Department of Economics, University of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 210371, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0371.
The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was established by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. It allows for $40 billion in federal grants to states over a ten-year period to provide health insurance coverage for children. It has been shown that SCHIP coverage improves health outcomes, including child health status and access to and utilization of primary care, as opposed to emergency or specialty care. Unfortunately, however, enrollment and retention in SCHIP programs across the country have been disappointing. Whereas the SCHIP program is funded primarily through federal monies with state contributions, it is up to the individual counties to administer the program. As obstacles, counties often face a lack of outreach funding; confusing media messages to potential applicants; a transitory population; a slow, burdensome, and intrusive application process; parent migrant status; lack of support by school administrators in disseminating information about SCHIP; and issues of privacy and pride. Using multivariate regression analysis with a county as the unit of observation, we explain percentage of eligible children enrolled in SCHIP as a function of accessibility of health care, availability of providers, and community economic health. A regression for the state of Pennsylvania identifies the number of clinics (per 100,000 people) and the percent of the population enrolled in a Medicaid managed-care organization as having positive, statistically significant effects on SCHIP enrollment success. The percent of households having a female head has a strong, negative effect on SCHIP enrollment success.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participants will be able to
Keywords: Access to Health Care, Health Care Utilization
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.