U S Government Accountability Office

Medicaid and CHIP U S Government Accountability Office

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) expands health insurance to millions of individuals, including many parents. New insurance options for parents raise a question about whether providing health insurance to parents benefits their children. The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) asked GAO to assess (1) the extent a parent's health insurance status is associated with a child's health insurance status, use of services, and parental satisfaction with their child's care; and (2) how selected states' parent coverage under Medicaid and CHIP may change given upcoming expansions. To examine the association between a parent's and a child's health insurance status, GAO analyzed data from 3 years of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (2005-2007), a nationally representative survey. GAO categorized parent and child health insurance status as private, public, or uninsured, and analyzed nine parent/child insurance combinations. GAO also analyzed relevant, peer-reviewed literature. To examine how states may change their Medicaid- and CHIP-funded parent coverage, GAO reviewed CHIPRA and PPACA, and interviewed officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and eight states with authority to cover parents in their...