July 27, 2010: The SHARE research team led by José Escarce has released an issue brief analyzing efforts to expand CHIP coverage to higher-income children in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Washington. The authors use data from the 2002-2009 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey (CPS) to evaluate the effect of expanded CHIP eligibility in these states on overall health insurance coverage, as well as on public coverage, among children with family incomes between 200 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL).
The brief finds that Illinois, which implemented the broadest eligibility expansion of the three states, saw the largest increase in the percentage of higher-income children covered by public health insurance. Illinois also shows the strongest evidence that the overall decline in uninsurance among this group was consistent with expansion effects.