Background

The Federal Medicaid program has traditionally targeted families with low or no income. Because of this, policymakers have customarily limited the amounts of cost-sharing that Medicaid programs can impose in order to minimize barriers to enrollment and utilization. As government-subsidized health insurance programs have expanded to serve the "working poor," however, cost-sharing issues have become more relevant and more States have begun instituting cost-sharing policies.

Cost-sharing options such as premium contributions have been used in family-based expansion programs like TennCare [http://www.state.tn.us/tenncare/] and Washington's Basic Health Plan [http://www.basichealth.hca.wa.gov/] and are being permitted in the new Title XXI programs as well. Under SCHIP, States choosing to implement new State-run programs are granted additional flexibility to impose cost-sharing requirements on participating families well beyond those traditionally permitted under Medicaid. Because of this additional flexibility, new concerns surrounding the level and extent to which cost-sharing will present a barrier to families' utilization of SCHIP services are emerging.

Cited articles from Families USA Foundation about cost-sharing:

Give me more details

Who presented this material?

[Top of Page]