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Data Needs for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (2002) / Chapter Skim
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2 Estimating Eligibility
Pages 7-11

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From page 7...
... The SCHIP allotments to states for a given year are based on a complex formula that uses the average of the number of low-income children from the March supplement of the Current Population Survey for the previous three years, adjusted to take into account factors accounting for dif
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From page 8...
... The challenges include having to estimate eligibility from income data that do not map directly to state eligibility criteria, either in terms of the eligibility criteria for the state's Medicaid program, the definition of insurance, the definition of countable income, or the length of the reference period for measuring income or insurance coverage; respondents' difficulties in accurately responding to survey questions on income; differences in income thresholds across the states; nonresponse to the survey; and inadequate sample sizes to estimate the number of eligible children in all but the largest states, even when multiple years of survey data are combined.] SCHIP is a state program with only general guidelines from the federal government, thus eligibility criteria vary from state to state.
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From page 9...
... For example, some states attempt to more closely approximate disposable income by allowing applicants to deduct such expenses as child care and child support in calculating income for purposes of determining eligibility. Survey responses are further complicated by respondents giving inconsistent answers to questions about the time period during which they have been uninsured.
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From page 10...
... Furthermore, in nationally representative data, even surveys with large household samples like the Current Population Survey, sample sizes at the state level are too small to provide reliable estimates, particularly for the smaller states, and they are certainly too small to provide estimates at the regional or county level. One result has been that when states do attempt to make estimates based on national data, the standard errors can be so large as to make point estimates meaningless.
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From page 11...
... Better ways are needed to estimate eligibility and insurance coverage status from state and national survey data. · More work is needed to determine what data elements needed for estimating eligibility are included in each of the national surveys, how they are defined, and how differences in their content and definitions can be reconciled.
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Key Terms

  • family income
  • national surveys
  • eligibility data
  • eligibility criteria
  • current population

  • population survey
  • insurance coverage
  • countable income
  • estimate eligibility
  • telephone survey

  • state program
  • medicaid eligibility
  • own surveys
  • integrated telephone
  • survey responses

  • determining eligibility
  • accurately model
  • income band
  • eligible children
  • own methodologies

  • particular insurance
  • surveys using
  • medicaid program
  • ince schip
  • consider countable

  • narrow band
  • sample survey
  • uninsured children
  • provide reliable
  • march supplement


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