This issue brief highlights recent state trends in health care coverage for women and children through Medicaid and CHIP, gathered from an annual survey conducted by the NGA Center for Best Practices.
Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)—the nation’s public health coverage programs—provide a critical source of health insurance coverage to low-income pregnant women, infants, and children. This issue brief highlights recent state trends in health care coverage for women and children through Medicaid and CHIP, gathered from an annual survey conducted by the NGA Center for Best Practices (NGA Center).
In 2008, total enrollment in Medicaid reached nearly 60 million individuals, covering one in four children and accounting for almost one-sixth of all health care spending in the United States. An additional 5 million children were covered by CHIP. Although there is variation among state Medicaid programs in terms of who and what is covered, the data included in the Maternal and Child Health Statistics reflect cross-state similarities in program status as of fiscal year 2008 and detail trends over time in the nation’s Medicaid and CHIP enrollment.
