Nationally, less than 50 percent of children are re-enrolled in State Children’s Health Insurance programs.  To identify why, in 2004 we telephone surveyed parents who did not re-enroll their children in a North Carolina program.  We asked why a child was not re-enrolled, utilization of health care services, satisfaction with care, and future plans to obtain medical services.  Seventy-two percent of the respondents knew that their child was not re-enrolled and 28 percent did not know.  The most common reasons why parents did not re-enroll their child were because they never received the re-enrollment forms or they submitted their forms late.   Most said they would pay out of pocket now to purchase health care services for their child.  Most respondents had taken their child to see a provider in the last year, and most were satisfied with the care received.  We conclude that the goal of increasing re-enrollment among eligible children in NC requires closer case management and more readily accessible information about when, why, and how to re-enroll.

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