parents. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was enacted as Title XXI of the Social Security Act in 1997, with the goal of providing health insurance coverage to low-income uninsured children who are not eligible for Medicaid and do not have private coverage. The new program makes approximately $4 billion available to states each year, beginning in fiscal year l998. While covering parents was not an explicit goal of SCHIP, the original legislation did mention family coverage as an option. On July 31, 2000, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS, formerly the Health Care Financing Administration [HCFA]) issued guidance allowing states to apply for waivers to modify their SCHIP programs in various ways, including covering parents. While recent attention has focused on the problem of uninsurance among lowincome children, uninsurance among lowincome adults is an even larger problem. In 1999, 37 percent of low-income adults were uninsured, compared with 22 percent of low-income children (Zuckerman, Haley, and Holahan 2000). In addition to improving access to care for the parents themselves, covering parents may increase coverage for their children (Dubay and Kenney 2001; Lambrew 2001; Ku and Broaddus 2000) and have a positive impact on the care that their children receive (Davidoff et al. 2002; Hanson 1998). This brief examines the opportunity under SCHIP to provide coverage for lowincome parents. It draws on information collected in semi-structured interviews with state and federal officials, published and unpublished reports, and state SCHIP enrollment data. Below we highlight the experience of four states: Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. These are the first four states to apply for and receive waivers to use SCHIP funding to cover parents. Their experience should help other states as they examine this option for expanding eligibility to cover uninsured parents of Medicaid and SCHIP children.