Centene Chief Health Officer: Momentum is Growing to Stabilize Coverage for Young Children

The consensus is clear: stable coverage is essential to ensuring the continuity of care and better health. Yet, more than 11% of children enrolled in Medicaid experienced a gap in coverage over the course of a year and Centene’s data from 2018-2020 shows 43% of those children with gaps in coverage had an average gap length of greater than three months.

In a recently published white paper, Centene’s Chief Health Officer, Dr. Alice Hm Chen, shines a light on the increased interest in multiyear, continuous Medicaid enrollment, in which children are covered continuously during their preschool years. She explores the causes and consequences of coverage gaps, the benefits of stable coverage and why more states are taking the next step to ensure stable coverage and care for children.

Key takeaways include:

• Uninterrupted coverage can provide greater financial stability, helping families avoid unaffordable out-of-pocket costs or accumulating medical debt.
• Administrative savings could be possible with reduced case closings and reenrollments.
• Stable coverage has been shown to reduce healthcare costs. People enrolled in Medicaid for longer periods of time – which promotes timely, medically appropriate care and preventive services – have been found to have lower average monthly medical expenses compared to those enrolled in Medicaid for shorter time periods.
• Several states have secured federal approval or are seeking approval to provide multi-year continuous coverage for children during their formative preschool years. Other states are also (or alternatively) providing multiyear enrollment protections for older children, youth moving out of foster care and children experiencing homelessness.

Read more from Dr. Chen on how continuous eligibility policies, when coupled with state, health plan and provider efforts to strengthen access to care, hold the promise of providing better health and health outcomes for millions of children in Health Affairs Forefront.