Nemours is excited to release its new “Early Childhood and Medicaid: Opportunities for Partnering” paper. The paper explains how the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) programs function to practitioners in the early childhood (EC) sector. The paper also explores how partnerships between the ECE sector and Medicaid and CHIP can be formed to lessen the impacts of social determinants of health on child health outcomes. This work was funded in part by the Alliance for Early Success.

Nemours is currently working with several states to improve coordination between the EC sector and Medicaid and CHIP programs. Our experience has taught us that state EC advocates and policy makers need additional information on how to partner with the state agencies that insure millions of low-income children. In this paper, we have identified strategies for engaging Medicaid and CHIP staff around child outcomes and present examples of successful partnerships. While Medicaid and CHIP programs are focused on their core mission of providing health coverage, partnering and having them at the table can help ensure that scarce resources from both sectors are coordinated in support of children’s overall well-being.

Source: Nemours