By Christine Vestal, Stateline Staff Writer
Even as states struggled to meet their Medicaid obligations during the recession, most increased the percentage of kids covered under the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Thirty states boosted the proportion of eligible kids covered under the federal-state program and the national average moved from 80 percent to nearly 85 percent, according to a new report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute. Preliminary U.S. Census data suggests that expansion is continuing, the study says.
