Dataset Information

How did welfare reform affect the health insurance coverage of women and children?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To measure the change in U.S. women and children's health insurance coverage as a result of welfare reform (i.e. the creation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF) in 1996.

Data source

1992-1999 longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) merged with data on the timing of state implementation of welfare reform after 1996. Two key advantages of the SIPP data are that they permit matching type of insurance coverage to the welfare policy environment in each state in each month, and permit controlling for individual-level fixed effects.

Study design

We measure how much insurance coverage changed after welfare reform using a difference in differences method that eliminates the influence of time-invariant unobserved individual heterogeneity and of statewide trends in insurance coverage. Models also control for individual, state, and year fixed effects, individual-level characteristics such as education, age, and number of children, plus state-level variables such as real per capita income, real minimum wage, and Medicaid eligibility.

Data collection/extraction methods

We limit our analysis to the SIPP data specific to the month just completed prior to the interview; as a result, we have up to twelve observations for each individual in the SIPP. This paper uses pooled data from the 1992-1996 panels of the SIPP covering the period 1992-1999. Publicly available state identifiers permit the merger of state policies and macroeconomic variables with the SIPP.

Principal findings

TANF implementation is associated with an 8.1 percent increase in the probability that a welfare-eligible woman was uninsured. Welfare reform had less of an impact on the health insurance coverage of children. For example, TANF implementation was associated with a 3.0 percent increase in the probability that a welfare-eligible child lacked health insurance.

Conclusions

An unintended consequence of welfare reform was to adversely impact the health insurance coverage of economically vulnerable women and children, and that this impact was several times larger than the previous literature implies.

SUBMITTER: Cawley J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1702522 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

How did welfare reform affect the health insurance coverage of women and children?

Cawley John J Schroeder Mathis M Simon Kosali I KI

Health services research 20060401 2

<h4>Objective</h4>To measure the change in U.S. women and children's health insurance coverage as a result of welfare reform (i.e. the creation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF) in 1996.<h4>Data source</h4>1992-1999 longitudinal data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) merged with data on the timing of state implementation of welfare reform after 1996. Two key advantages of the SIPP data are that they permit matching type of insurance coverage to the welf ...[more]

PMID: 16584461

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Project description:OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the impact of welfare reform on insurance coverage before pregnancy and on first-trimester initiation of prenatal care (PNC) among pregnant women eligible for Medicaid under welfare-related eligibility criteria. DATA SOURCES: We used pooled data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System for eight states (AL, FL, ME, NY, OK, SC, WA, and WV) from 1996 through 1999. STUDY DESIGN: We estimated a two-part logistic model of insurance coverage before pregnancy and first-trimester PNC initiation. The impact of welfare reform on insurance coverage before pregnancy was measured by marginal effects computed from coefficients of an interaction term for the postreform period and welfare-related eligibility and on PNC initiation by the same interaction term and the coefficients of insurance coverage adjusted for potential simultaneous equation bias. We compared the estimates from this model with results from simple logistic, ordinary least squares, and two-stage least squares models. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Welfare reform had a significant negative impact on Medicaid coverage before pregnancy among welfare-related Medicaid eligibles. This drop resulted in a small decline in their first-trimester PNC initiation. Enrollment in Medicaid before pregnancy was independent of the decision to initiate PNC, and estimates of the effect of a reduction in Medicaid coverage before pregnancy on PNC initiation were consistent over the single- and two-stage models. Effects of private coverage were mixed. Welfare reform had no impact on first-trimester PNC beyond that from reduced Medicaid coverage in the pooled regression but separate state-specific regressions suggest additional effects from time and income constraints induced by welfare reform may have occurred in some states. CONCLUSIONS: Welfare reform had significant adverse effects on insurance coverage and first-trimester PNC initiation among our nation's poorest women of childbearing age. Improved outreach and insurance options for these women are needed to meet national health goals.

Project description:ObjectiveTo improve understanding of the relationship between lack of insurance and risk of subsequent mortality.Data sourcesAdults who reported being uninsured or privately insured in the National Health Interview Survey from 1986 to 2000 were followed prospectively for mortality from initial interview through 2002. Baseline information was obtained on 672,526 respondents, age 18-64 at the time of the interview. Follow-up information on vital status was obtained for 643,001 (96 percent) of these respondents, with approximately 5.4 million person-years of follow-up.Study designRelationships between insurance status and subsequent mortality are examined using Cox proportional hazard survival analysis.Principal findingsAdjusted for demographic, health status, and health behavior characteristics, the risk of subsequent mortality is no different for uninsured respondents than for those covered by employer-sponsored group insurance at baseline (hazard ratio 1.03, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.95-1.12). Omitting health status as a control variable increases the estimated hazard ratio to 1.10 (95 percent CI, 1.03-1.19). Also omitting smoking status and body mass index increases the hazard ratio to 1.20 (95 percent CI, 1.15-1.24). The estimated association between lack of insurance and mortality is not larger among disadvantaged subgroups; when the analysis is restricted to amenable causes of death; when the follow-up period is shortened (to increase the likelihood of comparing the continuously insured and continuously uninsured); and does not change after people turn 65 and gain Medicare coverage.ConclusionsThe Institute of Medicine's estimate that lack of insurance leads to 18,000 excess deaths each year is almost certainly incorrect. It is not possible to draw firm causal inferences from the results of observational analyses, but there is little evidence to suggest that extending insurance coverage to all adults would have a large effect on the number of deaths in the United States.

Dataset Information

How did welfare reform affect the health insurance coverage of women and children?

Objective

Data source

Study design

Data collection/extraction methods

Principal findings

Conclusions

Publications

How did welfare reform affect the health insurance coverage of women and children?

Similar Datasets

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