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Utah has the country's second-lowest participation rate in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, a persistent problem propelling the state's uninsured rate, a new report shows.
An estimated 7 million children in America were uninsured on any given day in 2008, and nearly 5 million of those were eligible for government-funded, low-income health insurance programs, according to a report by the Urban Institute.
Published Friday in the online journal HealthAffairs, the report uses Census data from the 2008 American Community Survey to estimate rates of participation by children in each state, as well as how many children were eligible but not enrolled.
The report doesn't reflect recent efforts to remedy the problem, nor the large increase in enrollment during the economic recession, said Kolbi Young, a spokeswoman at the Utah Department of Health.
Participation rates — the rate of eligible children enrolled — varied across the nation, with the lowest at 55.4 percent in Nevada, followed by 66.2 percent in Utah. The highest rates were in the District of Columbia, at 95.4 percent, and 95.2 in Massachusetts.
Western states accounted for a large share of eligible, uninsured kids. They also boast a disproportionate share of children.
Utah has long fought to remove enrollment barriers to eligible families with limited success, said Korey Capozza, a senior policy analyst at Voices for Utah Children. "We have a long way to go."
In 2008, Utah lawmakers passed a bill that called for enrollment to remain open year-round, instead of being limited to certain windows.
That same year, health officials began an outreach campaign, advertising CHIP in English and Spanish on TV, radio and in newspapers. The department also sent mailers to child care centers and placed inserts in utility bills and back-to-school packets, said Young.
Since then, CHIP enrollment has grown significantly, said Young, who concedes the recession was a big factor. As of Aug. 1, CHIP was covering 40,460 Utah children.
But the recession also wiped out the health department's advertising budget.
Now, an effort funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is under way to identify Utah barriers to enrolling and staying enrolled.
"Utah has a really high churn rate of 40 percent," said Capozza, who has led efforts to reduce red tape.
Among them is a new law that cuts down on the paperwork that parents need to supply to renew their CHIP plan. Caseworkers will soon be able to verify a family's continued eligibility by accessing Utah Tax Commission data, instead of requiring that they submit pay stubs.
"It's a good first step, but there's still a lot we can do," said Capozza, who would like electronic verification expanded to apply to Medicaid enrollees.
Getting kids covered
To learn more about the Children's Health Insurance Program or apply for enrollment, call 1-877-KIDS-NOW or visit health.utah.gov/chip/.