Open Up Healthcare Coverage for Parents and Junior will get it Too: Report

Increasing the number of low-income parents eligible for public health insurance programs would also boost the number of children with health care coverage, according to a report by the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation.

The report, “Understanding the Uninsured: Tailoring Policy Solutions for Different Subpopulations,” noted that access to public insurance coverage is most restrictive for adults. As a result, only 29 percent of the parents that are uninsured, an estimated 3.6 million, can enroll in the programs.

That leaves an estimated 4.8 million uninsured parents with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) who currently are not eligible for public health coverage. One third of them have incomes below 100 percent of the FPL, the report said.

The reports’ authors, Nancy Chockley, Julie Schoenman, and Bridget Murphy, report that these adults could be helped by extending current public programs or providing subsidies. “There is evidence that children are more likely to be enrolled in these programs if their parents are also eligible,” they said.

Only seven states provide public health assistance to low-income adults, the report said. And half of all states deny access to traditional Medicaid benefits for working parents in families above 63 percent of the federal poverty level, which is about $13,000 for a family of four.

“This means there is plenty of room for expansion just to reach the poorest adults,” according to the report. However, the authors don’t expect enrollment in traditional Medicaid and SCHIP to increase given state budget shortfalls. “State’s often make it more difficult to enroll when they run into funding problems,” the report found.