Potentially eligible Medicaid population without Medicaid coverage

1. Potentially eligible Medicaid population without Medicaid coverage

2. Authors: • Gerry Fairbrother, PhD • Joseph Schuchter, MPH Reviewers: • Lorin Ranbom • David Dorsky • Tom Scheid

3. Insurance is a critical precursor for health • Insurance = appropriate, quality care: medical home, regular check-ups, etc. • No insurance or unstable coverage leads to individual costs: • Unmet needs, delayed care, bankruptcy and societal costs: • “A Shared Destiny”, IOM 2003

4. Most of the uninsured are eligible Two-thirds of uninsured children meet income requirements One-third of uninsured parents meet income requirements Uninsured children: FPL Uninsured parents: FPL

5. Study purpose: • To examine the uninsured and unstably insured parents and children who are eligible for public coverage to learn: • who they are • how they differ from insured individuals • why they are not covered

6. Analysis restricted to eligible children and parents • Eligible children: • Households <150% FPL • Households 150-200% FPL w/out other coverage • Eligible parents: • Households <100%FPL • parent, foster parent, legal-guardian, or step-parent to at least one family member aged 17 or younger living in their household

7. Current status Participating Not participating (uninsured) Other Year-long status Full-year insured Part-year insured (unstable) Full-year uninsured (chronically) Insurance status

8. Insurance classification of children and parents, current and year-long status

9. Current and year-long insurance status of eligible children and parents

10. Likelihood of not participating in Medicaid and being uninsured; univariate analysis

11. Children’s participation • 77,000 eligible uninsured children • upper end of the income eligibility spectrum • have two adults in the family • of Hispanic race/ethnicity • no special health care need • rural non-Appalachian area • PARENT WHO IS NOT ON MEDICAID

12. Parent’s participation • 105,000 eligible uninsured parents • upper end of the income eligibility spectrum • have two adults in the family • of Hispanic race/ethnicity • no special health care need • male

13. Likelihood of being uninsured all-year *, univariate analysis * Uninsured for a full-year compared to insured for a full-year

14. Unstable and chronic uninsurance • Associated w/ the same characteristics predicting participation in children and parents

15. Why uninsured in the past 12 months?

16. Primary reason for being uninsured in the past 12m, percent of currently uninsured children and parents

17. Why no longer have Medicaid?

18. Primary reason for no longer having Medicaid, children and parents, by current insurance status

19. Why unable to get Medicaid? Why didn’t anyone try?

20. Primary reason child was unable to get Medicaid and family didn’t try to get, among children uninsured currently and for part or all of the past 12 months

21. Health utilization and needs among eligible children, by year-long insurance status

22. Health utilization and needs among eligible parents, by year-long insurance status

23. Insurance works • General increase in care received and decrease in unmet needs, for both children and parents • Most notable difference in the % of children with a well child visit in the last year: children with a full-year of Medicaid coverage • Must be continuous to be effective: those with unstable (part-year) coverage have a level of unmet needs similar to those uninsured for a full-year

24. Implications • address confusion among working families about eligibility requirements • more linguistically and culturally sensitive outreach • enable families to obtain coverage they value; few of the eligible uninsured didn’t want or need Medicaid • further simplify enrollment and renewal processes to reduce burden on families and eligibility workers • solutions to increase enrollment must be multi-faceted, using both simplification and outreach