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Looking At CHIP: How Health Care Reform Can Work

There has been a lot of recent news around health care reform, both good and bad.  But as we continue to move forward with implementation of the new law, its useful to look at past cases where reform has worked and has been implemented well.

CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Program), the federal-state partnership launched over a decade ago to provide coverage to uninsured children, is a great example of a public program that has worked well.

Foundations, state-based advocates, states and the federal government have all come together to make the program successful, and uninsurance for children is now at a low.  CHIP has worked because it combined public education, strong research on the target population, and well-designed policy, all geared toward the central goal of reducing uninsurance rates among children.  It is a government run program, but relies on strong partnerships with a variety of stakeholders.  Mirroring that strategy in health care implementation will be vital to success.

For more information on CHIP, click here.