Joint SNAP and Medicaid/CHIP Program Eligibility and Participation in 2011

Joint SNAP and Medicaid/CHIP Program Eligibility and Participation in 2011 LAURA WHEATON, VICTORIA LYNCH, PAMELA LOPREST, AND ERIKA HUBER WORK SUPPORT STRATEGIES EVALUATION BRIEF SEPTEMBER 2014 Copyright © September 2014. Urban Institute. Permission is granted for reproduction of this file, with attribution to the Urban Institute. Cover image shows Jennifer Donald, whose family receives money from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, eating dinner with her three children (October 8, 2013, AP Photo/Matt Rourke). The authors thank the many people who made this report possible. The Ford Foundation has provided generous lead funding for the entire Work Support Strategies (WSS) project and evaluation. Additional crucial support for the WSS project was provided by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, the JP Morgan Chase Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations. We thank the state staff from the five states who provided data for and reviewed this paper: Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, and South Carolina. We also thank Martha Johnson, Joyce Morton, Dean Resnick, and Silke Taylor for their research and programming assistance, and Linda Giannarelli, Olivia Golden, Heather Hahn, Julia Isaacs, Monica Rohacek, and Genevieve Kenney for their support, expert advice, and review of this work. The nonprofit Urban Institute is dedicated to elevating the debate on social and economic policy. For nearly five decades, Urban scholars have conducted research and offered evidence-based solutions that improve lives and strengthen communities across a rapidly urbanizing world. Their objective research helps expand opportunities for all, reduce hardship among the most vulnerable, and strengthen the effectiveness of the public sector. Urban strives for the highest standards of integrity and quality in its research, analyses, and policy recommendations. Urban scholars believe that independence, rigor, and transparency are essential to upholding those values. Funders do not determine research findings or influence scholars’ conclusions. As an organization, the Urban Institute does not take positions on issues. Urban scholars and experts are independent and empowered to share their evidence-based views and recommendations shaped by research. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Joint SNAP and Medicaid/CHIP Program Eligibility and Participation in 2011 Federal and state food and medical assistance programs aim to improve the circumstances of low-income families and individuals. To achieve this goal, benefits must get to those in need. Monitoring the percentage of those eligible for program benefits who receive them (known as the program participation rate) can demonstrate how well programs are reaching those in need—as determined by program eligibility rules. To address low-income families’ needs, it is important to evaluate “joint” participation rates—the percentage of individuals eligible for multiple benefit programs who are receiving those benefits. Joint participation rates provide a benchmark for states to examine the impact of existing efforts or the need for additional efforts to improve access to multiple benefits among those eligible. States that are part of the Work Support Strategies (WSS) project (see box) are engaged in these efforts, including increased coordination of eligibility processes and policies across programs and reduction of bureaucratic redundancies that pose barriers to multiple program receipt. Participation rates are regularly produced and tracked for some food and medical assistance programs (Cunnyngham 2014; Kenney et al. 2010; Kenney et al. 2012). However, there is currently no source of information on joint food and medical assistance program participation. In this brief, we take the first step in providing joint participation information for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).1 We present joint eligibility for children, parents, and other nonelderly adults for the 50 states and the District of Columbia to show how many individuals qualify and could be served by both programs. We also present joint participation rates for five states (Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, North Carolina, and South Carolina) participating in WSS.2 These states made administrative data on joint program enrollment available, enabling the development of joint participation rates based on enrollment data from administrative databases and eligibility derived from survey data.3 These 2011 results, the most recent year for which joint eligibility was modeled, provide a picture of joint eligibility and participation before the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which has increased eligibility for Medicaid in a number of states, particularly for adults. These estimates can therefore be seen as “pre-ACA” measures before joint eligibility and participati