Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program may not be as successful at enrolling African American and Latino children as is often thought, according to The Washington Post.
A surprising number — around 50 percent — of Latino and African American parents don't realize their children are eligible for low-cost health insurance, according to a recent study in the International Journal for Equity in Health.
In the study — conducted between 2011 and 2014 — researchers analyzed low-income parents in Dallas, whom they talked to at various community centers, Goodwill stores, laundromats and libraries. These citizens' children shared three similarities: They were 18 or under; their parents identified them as Latino, Hispanic, African American or black; and they were eligible for Medicaid or CHIP.
Once the researchers found 267 uninsured children to study, they asked the parents whether they knew their children were eligible for low-cost insurance. Approximately 49 percent of the parents were not aware their children could qualify.
However, 95 percent of the 267 children had previously been insured. Why did the parents let their children's health insurance lapse? They cited various reasons, including not reapplying, lack of a response from Medicaid or CHIP and missing paperwork.
Instead, these families pay out-of-pocket for health insurance. And their children are less healthy — approximately two-thirds of the kids in the study had healthcare needs like eczema or asthma.
"[The study] tells us that this system is not designed to keep kids on insurance," said Glenn Flores, MD, the study's lead author and a health policy researcher and pediatrician at Minnetonka, Minn.-based Medica Research Institute and Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic. "We need to do a much better job with outreach."
In a follow-up study, Dr. Flores and the researchers paired families identified in the first study with mentors trained on getting health coverage for children. By the end of the study, 68 percent of non-mentored kids had signed up for coverage, while 95 percent of mentored children were enrolled.