Low-Income Children's Preventive Services Use: Implications of Parents' Medicaid Status
Abstract
This article examines the effect of parents' Medicaid status on the use of preventive
health services by young children. Using data from the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel
Survey (MEPS), we analyzed a logit model for receipt of any well-child visits (WCVs)
that compared three groups of low-income children. The three groups, defined by the
joint insurance status of children and their parents, involved Medicaid pairs (both
the child and the parent had Medicaid throughout the year), mixed pairs (the child
had Medicaid and the parent was uninsured), and uninsured pairs (both child and parent
were uninsured). Medicaid coverage for children was positively associated with receipt
of any WCVs. However, the utilization effect of Medicaid coverage for children was
significantly larger when the parent was also on Medicaid instead of being uninsured.
Considering uninsured children with uninsured parents in 1996, enrolling only the
children in Medicaid would have increased the percentage with WCVs from 29 to 43 percent
according to simulations with the logit model. If the parents were enrolled in Medicaid
as well, the percentage of children with any WCVs would have increased to 67 percent.
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Elizabeth Joanne Gifford
Associate Research Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Beth Gifford is an associate research professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy,
a core faculty member of the Center for Child and Family Policy and the Margolis Center
for Health Policy, and leads the Social and Economic pillar of the Children’s Health
and Discovery Institute. She leads a multidisciplinary research team that examines
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