VIDEO: AAP launches effort to reform children’s health care

ByRose Weldon

Fact checked byCarol L. DiBerardino, MLA, ELS

Key takeaways:

The AAP wants to automatically enroll newborns in health care coverage at birth, with a parental choice to opt out.
The plan would combine Medicaid and CHIP into a single health care program until age 26 years.

WASHINGTON — The AAP launched an effort to improve health care access for children that includes automatically enrolling newborns at birth in a single program that combines Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

The AAP announced the endeavor in a policy statement at the AAP Annual Conference & Exhibition.

In keeping with the conference’s theme of advocacy this year, the AAP Committee on Child Health Financing suggested combining the two programs to ensure equitable health care coverage for all children and making the plan available until age 26 years. Parents could opt out of coverage if the infant is covered under other insurance.

The AAP also called for an increase in the federal funding share of Medicaid and CHIP.

In this video, Jennifer D. Kusma, MD, MS, FAAP, assistant professor of pediatrics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a co-author of the statement, talks about the policy’s finer points, such as changes to make access to health care easier across the states.

“We think there needs to be a national standard of care that’s enforced so that all children, regardless of what state they live in, have the same health insurance program,” Kusma said.