Beyond Coverage: SCHIP Makes Strides Toward Providing a Usual Source of Care to Low-Income Children.

A usual source of care has been considered an important goal for children’s health care for many years and has been linked to many positive outcomes—increased use of preventive care, decreased use of emergency room care, and better continuity of care. This report synthesizes qualitative and quantitative evidence on the extent to which SCHIP enrollees report having a usual source of care. A review of state annual reports indicates that many state SCHIP programs have achieved the usual source of care goals set forth in <I>Healthy People 2010</I>. In addition, evidence from several states suggests that children’s access to a usual source of care improved upon enrolling in SCHIP. Gaps remain, however, given the wide variation among states in the extent to which SCHIP enrollees have a usual source of care.