November 3, 2009: SHARE grantee Michael Cousineau has released a new issue brief based on his evaluation of outreach and enrollment strategies used to target uninsured children in California who are eligible for-but not enrolled in-public programs. The brief, "Trends in Child Enrollment in California's Public Health Insurance Programs," is the second in a series of three briefs based on Dr. Cousineau's SHARE-sponsored research.
In this brief, Dr. Cousineau and his research team examine child enrollment trends in California's three main public insurance programs: Medi-Cal, Health Families, and Healthy Kids. The researchers report an overall increase in total enrollment in public insurance programs in California from 2001 through 2007, along with an overall increase in new enrollments (enrollments of children who have not been enrolled in a given program in the prior 12 months), with some variation within programs and over time.
Based on enrollment trends, it appears that outreach efforts may contribute to the cyclical spikes in new Medi-Cal and Healthy Families enrollments and to the number of children enrolled in the Healthy Kids program. Dr. Cousineau's third and final issue brief will examine whether the strategies used-and variations in their deployment-do indeed affect enrollment trends.
Click here to open a PDF of Dr. Cousineau's issue brief.