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Between 1997 and 2007, the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation (RWJF) invested nearly $150 million in two major initiatives focused
on reducing the number of eligible, uninsured children and adults through
enrollment in Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program
(SCHIP). Covering Kids and Covering Kids & Families comprised
the nation’s single largest effort of its kind to ensure that every child and
adult eligible for public health coverage received it. The Southern
Institute on Children and Families served as National Program Office for both
initiatives, which helped transform today’s Medicaid and SCHIP programs.
 The
Covering Kids initiative was authorized by RWJF in 1997. From
1997-2002, Covering Kids statewide and local projects and coalitions in
all 50 states and the District of Columbia focused on reducing the number of
uninsured children through three strategies: 1) outreach to eligible, uninsured
children; 2) simplification of burdensome eligibility policies and practices;
and 3) coordination of eligibility policies and procedures among different
coverage programs. Statewide and local projects and coalitions served as
change agents and encouraged a fundamental shift in perceptions of Medicaid
from a welfare program to a health insurance program with a new consumer
focus. Covering Kids also played a significant role in encouraging
states to simplify the process required to establish eligibility for Medicaid
or SCHIP. As a result of these simplification efforts, SCHIP and Medicaid
enrollment for children’s health coverage is now more family-friendly.
Click on a state name below to learn more about Covering
Kids statewide and local projects in operation between 1997 and 2002.
Covering Kids Statewide and Local Project Information
(1997-2002)
 In
May 2001, RWJF authorized Covering Kids & Families, which expanded
the target population from children only to encompass both children and
adults. Covering Kids & Families also operated in 50 states
and the District of Columbia. The initiative retained a focus on the strategies
of outreach, simplification and coordination and also focused on building
knowledge, experience and capacity for sustainability beyond the conclusion of
the initiative.
Covering Kids & Families statewide and
local projects and coalitions across the nation were instrumental in reforming
eligibility policies and practices and establishing networks and collaboratives
that have made a significant difference in the lives of millions of children
and adults who otherwise would still be in the ranks of the uninsured.
Please see
Covering Kids & Families: Promising practices from the nation’s single
largest effort to insure eligible children and adults through public health
coverage, which was published by the Southern Institute in April
2007. It features statewide and local coalition promising practices
related to outreach, simplification and coordination, as well as examples from
grantee participation in the Southern Institute’s Eligibility Process
Improvement Collaboratives.
Click on a state name below to learn more Covering
Kids & Families statewide and local projects in operation between
2001 and 2007.
Covering Kids & Families Statewide and Local Project Information
(2001-2007)
For additional information, please email
Beth Shine, Communications Director, Southern Institute on Children and
Families.
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