Children in Medicaid: Access to Care and Health Status Compared to All Children in Iowa - A Report to the Iowa Department of Human Services

This report presents a comparison of the perceived access to care and health status of children in the Iowa Medicaid managed care programs with all children in Iowa. The information for children in Medicaidmanaged care was collected by administering written surveys and follow-up telephone surveys to parents of Medicaid-enrolled children during 2000. Data for the general population of children in Iowa was also collected during 2000 using telephone surveys. The comparison is meant to provide an idea of how Medicaid children compare with all children in Iowa. However, because there was some variation in the questions between the two sets of surveys (for example, some utilization of services questions on the Medicaid survey asked about the previous six months while the statewide survey asked about the use in the previous year), conclusions should be drawn carefully. The Iowa Department of Human Services sponsored this research effort. Researchers at the University of Iowa Public Policy Center completed data analysis and production of this report. The results presented in this report do not express the opinions of the Iowa Department of Human Services or the University of Iowa Public Policy Center.