: This study evaluates the role of national awareness campaigns designed to promote health insurance in increasing program participation among eligible children. While the need to determine the role of outreach in increasing participation is well-documented, the difficulty in quantifying all campaigns retrospectively is insurmountable. This study begins to elucidate the role of outreach by examining one type of campaign, the Robert Wood Johnson's Cover the Uninsured Week and Back to School campaigns. Variation in targeted markets by time, state, and demographic subpopulations is examined through a quasi-experimental design to help disentangle the role of these campaigns. As the stated goals of the campaigns include increasing awareness of the problem of uninsurance and the existence of public programs, this research also explores intermediate outcomes, such as changes in public opinion. Specific research objectives include: ? 1. To document the change in children's enrollment in public health insurance between 1996 and 2005, ? including in the time span the passage of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997. ? 2. To estimate the relative contribution of each of two national awareness campaigns in the enrollment levels of public health insurance programs for children while controlling for state variation in programs and the demographic composition of those who are potentially eligible. ? 3. To estimate the relative effectiveness of these campaigns for subgroups of SCHIP and Medicaid eligible children (age of child, age of parent, race/ethnicity, household income, etc.). ? 4. To explore changes in public opinion regarding public health insurance programs as a result of the national awareness campaigns. ? 5. To provide recommendations for future data collection with respect to all public health insurance education and outreach to enable future research to estimate the total role of these techniques in encouraging enrollment among eligible children. ? The dependent variable for this analysis is the uninsurance rate among those that are potentially eligible for public health insurance programs. The presence of an awareness campaign, including type, when, where, and who is the target audience, is the key explanatory variable. Campaign variables will be merged with the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS-ASEC). Controlling for state program characteristics, family, and individual characteristics, the campaigns' role on enrollment will be estimated. To validate the study results monthly enrollment patterns relative to the national campaigns will be documented using Medicaid enrollment data. The importance of the goal of this study is evidenced in Healthy People 2010's leading health indicators. Eliminating uninsurance among individuals under 65 years old is identified as a way to increase access to health care and improve health status (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2000). The benefits of insurance coverage are multifaceted, benefiting the individual covered, the family of the ? individual, and society at large (Institute of Medicine 2003). ? ? ?
