Join Back-to-School Drive to Enroll Kids in Medicaid, SCHIP

Covering Kids & Families' annual Back-to-School Campaign, which began Aug. 9, encourages families to enroll their children in Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and family physicians can participate in the August-September campaign in multiple ways.

This is the seventh year for the Back-to-School Campaign. Covering Kids & Families, a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is supported in part by the AAFP. The Academy also supports Cover the Uninsured Week, a related project spearheaded by the RWJ Foundation.

Family physicians interested in getting involved in the annual campaign can urge parents to call (877) KIDS-NOW, or (877) 543-7669, to find out if their children are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP. Family physicians also might consider staffing an enrollment fair at a local school or holding one at their practices, where they can post information on health coverage benefits, such as free or low-cost doctor's visits, hospitalization and prescriptions. In addition, family physicians can order free fliers and bookmarks in English or Spanish to distribute to patients. The Web site for the Back-to-School Campaign lists campaign events and activities across the country and provides contact numbers. The site also offers press releases and a report prepared for the RWJ Foundation, The State of Kids' Coverage. (PDF file: 25 pages / 310 KB. More about PDFs.)

The latest census data show that nearly 8.3 million children in the United States are uninsured, and experts say more than 70 percent of those children are likely to be eligible for coverage through SCHIP or Medicaid, according to an Aug. 9 news release from the foundation.

The State of Kids' Coverage report says 11.3 percent of children 17 or younger in the United States were uninsured during all or some part of 2003 and 2004, compared with 14.2 percent of children who were uninsured during all or some part of 1997 and 1998.

"The decline in the number of uninsured kids is a rare piece of good news for our nation's health care system," said RWJ Foundation President and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., in an Aug. 9 press release posted on the Covering Kids & Families Web site. "The success of SCHIP and other public programs has provided a much-needed safety net for our nation's children, especially as fewer children are receiving employer-sponsored coverage. Congress was right to have the foresight in 1997 to authorize these programs. Still, more than one in five Hispanic children is uninsured. Our nation's leaders must continue to make health coverage for all children a top priority."

According to the press release, more than 3 million Hispanic children are uninsured, and Hispanic children are more likely to be uninsured than non-Hispanic white or black children. However, the release also notes that the percentage of uninsured Hispanic children 17 or younger in the United States has decreased by 27 percent since Congress approved SCHIP in 1997, and the percentage of all uninsured children has declined by 20 percent during the same period.

The State of Kids' Coverage gives more complete coverage information by race and ethnicity. In 2003-04, 7.5 percent of white children were uninsured; 13.4 percent of African-American (non-Hispanic) children were uninsured; 21 percent of Hispanic children were uninsured; and 12.1 percent of other children were uninsured, according to the report.