Last month the GAO completed a report on adult coverage in SCHIP that had some interesting findings:

• 14 states cover adults under SCHIP (GAO only looked at 10 states' coverage, however).
• Out of these ten states, adults "represented less than 25 percent in 3 states, 33 to 50 percent in 4 states, and more than 50 percent in 3 states. Overall, the 343,000 adults covered in the 10 states comprised about 40 percent of the total number of individuals covered through SCHIP for these states."
• "As a proportion of total SCHIP expenditures..., adults constituted widely varying proportions in the 9 states for which we had fiscal year 2006 expenditure data—1 percent in 1 state, 32 to 42 percent in 3 states, and more than 50 percent in 5 states. Overall, adults accounted for about 54 percent of total SCHIP expenditures in the 9 states."
• "Per capita expenditures for parents ranged from 41 to 135 percent higher than those for children in 5 of the 6 states that offered direct coverage to parents."

• "Projected shortfalls—meaning that states were expected to have SCHIP expenditures that would call for federal matching funds in excess of those available to them—occurred at least once for 6 of the 10 states during 2005 through 2007; in comparison, 10 of the 41 other states faced projected shortfalls at least once during the same time period."

It's interesting that, on average, the states that give SCHIP coverage to adults end up with adults making up 40% of those enrolled in the program. And this large number of adults, because they are more expensive than kids, lead to fiscal shortfalls in states.

With the SCHIP debate likely to resurface next year or in 2009, this data will be useful in showing how irresponsible some states are in their SCHIP programs.