Medicaid and CHIP are crucial parts of the social safety net, providing health insurance coverage to more than half of all children ages 0-21 in D.C. and a third of children nationally. Without these two programs, more than 97,000 children in the District would have been uninsured in 2010. New research indicates that compared with the uninsured, Medicaid recipients are more likely to seek medical treatment, report better physical and mental health and experience less financial stress. Protecting Medicaid/CHIP is extremely important to safeguarding the health and well-being of the most vulnerable children. The difficult fiscal environment currently facing both D.C. and the federal government will almost certainly impact the future of public health insurance coverage for children and their families. (Contains 1 figure and 30 endnotes.) [This policy snapshot was produced in partnership with the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance.]