Congress established the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, in response to mounting pressure to address the number of uninsured children in the United States. Proponents of the plan argued that CHIP would deliver health insurance coverage to half of the nation’s 10 million uninsured children by 2000. Through federal FY 2005, however, the CHIP program had never reached enrollment of even 4 million children at any given time.
Empowerment Accounts: 21st Century Safety-Net Reform
Frankie Johnson, a college-educated single mother from Washington, D.C., moved to Atlanta to distance herself and daughter from an abusive husband. Without a job or place to live, she sought government assistance for childcare and transitional housing. While she waited for this assistance, she was offered a job paying $70,000. She turned it down. Why?...