Over the past decade, expansions under Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) have brought a significant infusion of federal dollars into state and county health systems and have produced a variety of state-level programs. Yet, the expansion of public health insurance programs at the state level has had mixed success in providing coverage and improving access to care for children. In some cases, states have fallen short of their enrollment projections because of barriers such as some children remaining ineligible for coverage or families finding programs difficult to access.

This report was presented in The Future of Children, Volume 13, Number 1, published by the Center for the Future of Children, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.