Children's Health

Iowa, Mass. Lead U.S. in Children's Health Care

CHIP: Another Viewpoint

Not everyone agrees with some of the report card’s conclusions.

“This is very far from an even-handed look at the state of child health and it is being used this to drive a policy agenda,” says Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, a nonprofit libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C.

It is not the state rankings that he takes issue with, but the fact that the group is using them to make a case for CHIP and other federal government health care policies, he says. “CHIP is cost-inefficient because it crowds out private insurance and makes people depend on government coverage,” he says. In addition, “CHIP subsidies disappear when you increase your earnings, so many people fall into a low-wage trap.”