title: Medicaid enrollment gap length and number of Medicaid enrollment periods among US children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined gap length, characteristics associated with gap length, and number of enrollment periods among Medicaid-enrolled children in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  We linked the 2004 National Health Interview Survey to Medicaid Analytic eXtract files for 1999 through 2008. We examined linkage-eligible children aged 5 to 13 years in the 2004 National Health Interview Survey who disenrolled from Medicaid. We generated Kaplan-Meier curves of time to reenrollment. We used Cox proportional hazards models to assess the effect of sociodemographic variables on time to reenrollment. We compared the percentage of children enrolled 4 or more times across sociodemographic groups. RESULTS. Of children who disenrolled from Medicaid, 35.8%, 47.1%, 63.5%, 70.8%, and 79.1% of children had reenrolled in Medicaid by 6 months, 1, 3, 5, and 10 years, respectively. Children who were younger, poorer, or of minority race/ethnicity or had lower educated parents had shorter gaps in Medicaid and were more likely to have had 4 or more Medicaid enrollment periods.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nearly half of US children who disenrolled from Medicaid reenrolled within 1 year. Children with traditionally high-risk demographic characteristics had shorter gaps in Medicaid enrollment and were more likely to have more periods of Medicaid enrollment.
authors.affiliation: Alan E. Simon and Kenneth C. Schoendorf are with the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville, MD. Kenneth C. Schoendorf is also with the US Public Health Service, Rockville, MD.
authors.forename: Alan E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Kenneth C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Schoendorf
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004608:Eligibility Determination; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States