Do Enrollees in “Look-Alike” Medicaid and SCHIP Programs Really Look Alike?
(2002). Jennifer N. Edwards, Janet Bronstein, and David B. Rein. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), passed by Congress in 1997, has been implemented by States in many different forms, thus creating a myriad of natural experiments about insurance coverage for low-income children. In Georgia, SCHIP children are enrolled in a Medicaid look-alike program, PeachCare for Kids, with nearly the same administrative rules and providers as the Medicaid program. Comparing the experiences of PeachCare and Medicaid children allowed the authors to examine the impact of population differences on utilization and satisfaction. The authors found Medicaid children, controlling for many demographic characteristics, reported both less use of services and lower satisfaction with services used. Evidence presented supports three possible explanations for these differences: Medicaid families are less familiar with and supportive of systems requiring use of an assigned primary care physician,
