An Evaluation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program

This report takes a holistic approach to understanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program in order to discern the ways in the political tradeoffs made to enable its passage affect its ability to meet the health needs of America’s children. The history and legislative development of this program is discussed first, with emphasis on the reauthorization efforts from 2007 to 2009. The second part of the report is an econometric analysis of Louisiana’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, LaCHIP. This analysis seeks to establish a relationship between the adoption of “best practices” in the administration of LaCHIP and the resulting changes in the incidence of unmet health needs among children eligible for the program. The analysis concludes that the adoption of one best practice in isolation did not have an effect on the odds of an eligible child having an unmet health need.