Description

KIDCAID indicates whether a child was covered by either Medicaid or Medicare during the previous calendar year. Though Medicare primarily provides health insurance coverage for the elderly, some children (e.g., who have disabled parents, or are a part of the renal failure program) would qualify for Medicare coverage.

The variable is a recode of other variables relating to insurance coverage, by the Census Bureau.

Comparability

User Note: For a set of variables that addresses many of the comparability issues in the CPS health insurance measures, see the summary health insurance variables created by the University of Minnesota's State Health Access Data Assistance Center.

The comparability of this variable over time is limited by changes in the CPS methodology. The naming of state-specific Medicaid programs by interviewers using the CATI interview format, beginning in 1994, may have increased the number of positive responses about Medicaid coverage. The addition of other questions to the survey also increased the completeness of reporting about Medicaid coverage. These included: a question about "other insurance" not previously mentioned, beginning in 1996; a question about the State Children's Health Care Program, which is administered through Medicaid in some states, beginning in 2001 (see SCHIPLY); and, beginning in 2001, a verification question to ascertain whether respondents who did not previously acknowledge insurance coverage actually lacked such coverage during the previous calendar year (see VERIFY).

For 2007-onward, the question asked only whether a child was covered by Medicaid, not Medicaid and Medicare.

Persons of all ages with Medicaid coverage during the previous calendar year are identified in HIMCAIDLY. Users should consult the descriptions for these variables for more detailed discussion of comparability issues in measuring Medicaid coverage over time.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables

• UH_CHMC_A1
• UH_ZCHMC_A1