Resources About Children's Health Initiative

Make Coverage Affordable for the Long Term

The American Rescue Plan's enhancements are critical to help individuals and families’ secure health access during the pandemic and are a needed correction to the ACA subsidy scale and must be made permanent.

The American Rescue Plan: A Prescription for Child Health and Stability During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The American Rescue Plan includes key provisions that will reduce child poverty in America and promote health through evidence-based solutions that respond to the current crisis and move our country forward to economic, racial, and social justice.

Addressing Trauma and Children’s Mental Health through Child Psychiatry Access Programs: An Introductory Guide for State Health Advocates

This new resource provides an introduction to child psychiatry access programs and makes some recommendations on how state advocates can start or strengthen programs in their state.

State Efforts to Implement the Free Care Policy Reversal

States and school districts see expanding school-based Medicaid programs as an opportunity to bring in additional resources to increase access to health services for vulnerable students.

Addressing ACEs through Trauma-Informed Health Systems: Practitioner and Practice Level Strategies

Research shows that traumatic events, like parental substance misuse or violence within their home or community, can have lifelong impacts on a child’s mental and physical health.

Tilting Toward Resilience: Working at the Intersection of Trauma and Children’s Mental Health [ Publication ]

The Family Four-Month Visit: A Multi-Generational and Multi-Caregiver Approach to Whole Family Health

The following brief proposes an approach to addressing caregiver depression through integrating depression screenings for partners into a four-month infant visit.

A Case for Trauma-Informed Care

This issue brief outlines what childhood trauma is, how it is measured, and how integrating trauma-informed approaches into advocacy work can improve the health of children and families.

Selected CHIP Policy Changes Enacted 2018

With the CHIP program now extended, the following charts highlight key dates of implementation for a number of provisions included in the final CHIP deals.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program: Recent Policy Changes and Action Steps for Advocates

In January, Congress passed funding for the CHIP program and then earlier this month they extended the funding even further. Although this is great news, Congress included some policy changes that state advocates will need to monitor.

Top Five Health Equity Priorities for Kids in 2018

As we move into 2018, the Children’s Health Initiative lays out its top priorities for health equity and children for the year. These range from supporting robust census work to ensuring children have access to trauma-informed care and health systems.

CMS Approves State Plan Amendment for Massachusetts, Creating New Opportunity for School-based Medicaid

Massachusetts received approval for a state plan amendment to reverse the Medicaid free care policy. The Massachusetts’ approach may inform other states’ decision-making in pursuing the free care policy reversal.

American Health Care Act’s Medicaid Plan Is Bad Medicine for Families

The GOP repeal bill, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), proposes an approach that would result in increases in the uninsured for all ages, forcing states to ration care to children and their families.

A New Generation of Children’s Health Policy: A Two (Or More) Generation Approach

This issue brief discusses two-generation policies and programs in children's health policy, investments in the health and well-being of both parents and children, especially in early years of life, simultaneously and with equal intensity.