Welfare Reform and Health Insurance Coverage of Low-Income Families / Robert Kaestner, Neeraj Kaushal.

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Kaestner, Robert

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Material type: Text

TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w10033.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2003.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Subject(s):

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Abstract: We study whether welfare reform adversely affected the health insurance coverage of low-educated single mothers and their children. Specifically, we investigate whether changes in the welfare caseload during the 1990s were associated with changes in Medicaid participation, private insurance coverage, and the number of uninsured among single mothers and their children. Estimates suggest that between 1996 and 1999, the 42 percent decrease in the welfare caseload was associated with the following changes in insurance coverage among low-educated, single mothers: a seven to nine percent decrease in Medicaid coverage; an increase in employer-sponsored, private insurance coverage of six percent; and a two to nine percent increase in the proportion uninsured. Among children of low-educated, single mothers, effects were somewhat smaller. Since welfare policy was responsible for only part (e.g., one-third) of the decline in the caseload, welfare reform per se had significantly smaller effects on the health insurance status of low-income families. However, we found limited evidence that changes in the caseload due to state and federal welfare policy had fewer adverse consequences on insurance status than changes in the caseload due to other factors. This implies even smaller effects of welfare reform.

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Item type	Home library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Working Paper	Biblioteca Digital	Colección NBER	nber w10033 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Not For Loan

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October 2003.

We study whether welfare reform adversely affected the health insurance coverage of low-educated single mothers and their children. Specifically, we investigate whether changes in the welfare caseload during the 1990s were associated with changes in Medicaid participation, private insurance coverage, and the number of uninsured among single mothers and their children. Estimates suggest that between 1996 and 1999, the 42 percent decrease in the welfare caseload was associated with the following changes in insurance coverage among low-educated, single mothers: a seven to nine percent decrease in Medicaid coverage; an increase in employer-sponsored, private insurance coverage of six percent; and a two to nine percent increase in the proportion uninsured. Among children of low-educated, single mothers, effects were somewhat smaller. Since welfare policy was responsible for only part (e.g., one-third) of the decline in the caseload, welfare reform per se had significantly smaller effects on the health insurance status of low-income families. However, we found limited evidence that changes in the caseload due to state and federal welfare policy had fewer adverse consequences on insurance status than changes in the caseload due to other factors. This implies even smaller effects of welfare reform.