SCHIP: Where Are The Data?

Like other advocates for children’s health, I have analmost religious conviction that the State Children’sHealth Insurance Program (SCHIP) is effective public policy.Ten years ago I helped implement the program in Indiana, and,more recently, as secretary of the Indiana Family and SocialServices Administration, I submitted a new request for a majorexpansion of the program in my state. Although I have no empiricalevidence to support the assertion that SCHIP is a beneficialand effective way to invest in children’s health, I workedto expand the program, and the expansion was approved in May2008 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

I was not able to base this expansion on empirical evidencebecause there is none. In the past decade, a study has neverbeen conducted to determine whether SCHIP actually improvesthe overall health and well-being of children. In Health Affairsin 2007, Genevieve Kenney and colleagues (Mar/Apr 07) stated,"The evidence on the effect of SCHIP on children’s healthand function is mixed." The lack of actual evidence of the benefitsfor children is simply damning to the program.

There is a large body of research on the positive effects thathealth insurance coverage has on the overall health and well-beingof adults, and it is past time for the same effort to be placedon children’s health. Public policy-makers need more thanjust a conviction that SCHIP works and is worthy of public investment.We need facts.

E. Mitchell Roob, Jr.
Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, Indianapolis,Indiana

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SCHIP: Where Are The Data?