Many uninsured children have unmet health care needs. However, when they apply for health coverage through Medicaid and CHIP, they often have to wait for over a month before their application is processed and their parents can make doctors' appointments. "Presumptive eligibility" can help children get needed care right away.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as the Affordable Care Act) envisions a simple and streamlined enrollment process for Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Basic Health, and the premium credits that will help consumers purchase coverage through the exchanges. The Affordable Care Act allows -- and in many cases requires -- that states take steps to dramatically ease the enrollment process for consumers. Automated eligibility and enrollment systems will be an important part of that process, but there are other tools states can use. One that has not received much attention in the context of health reform implementation is presumptive eligibility. Presumptive eligibility is not a new idea; states have used it to some extent in the Medicaid program since the mid-1980s and in CHIP since its enactment in the late1990s. However, the Affordable Care Act significantly expands states' ability to use presumptive eligibility to streamline the enrollment process for Medicaid and CHIP. This issue brief provides an overview of presumptive eligibility, explores the changes in the new law that pertain to presumptive eligibility, and outlines how presumptive eligibility fits into the new enrollment paradigm.

Can the ethical mission of health care survive among organizations competing for survival in the marketplace? This book presents both an analytic framework and a menu of pragmatic answers.

Children are the foundation of the United States, and supporting them is a key component of building a successful future. However, millions of children face health inequities that compromise their development, well-being, and long-term outcomes, despite substantial scientific evidence about how those adversities contribute to poor health. Advancements in neurobiological and socio-behavioral science show that critical biological systems develop in the prenatal through early childhood periods, and neurobiological development is extremely responsive to environmental influences during these stages. Consequently, social, economic, cultural, and environmental factors significantly affect a child's health ecosystem and ability to thrive throughout adulthood. Vibrant and Healthy Kids: Aligning Science, Practice, and Policy to Advance Health Equity builds upon and updates research from Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity (2017) and From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development (2000). This report provides a brief overview of stressors that affect childhood development and health, a framework for applying current brain and development science to the real world, a roadmap for implementing tailored interventions, and recommendations about improving systems to better align with our understanding of the significant impact of health equity.

The delivery of high quality and equitable care for both mothers and newborns is complex and requires efforts across many sectors. The United States spends more on childbirth than any other country in the world, yet outcomes are worse than other high-resource countries, and even worse for Black and Native American women. There are a variety of factors that influence childbirth, including social determinants such as income, educational levels, access to care, financing, transportation, structural racism and geographic variability in birth settings. It is important to reevaluate the United States' approach to maternal and newborn care through the lens of these factors across multiple disciplines. Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice reviews and evaluates maternal and newborn care in the United States, the epidemiology of social and clinical risks in pregnancy and childbirth, birth settings research, and access to and choice of birth settings.