Does Public Health Insurance for Children Improve Single Mothers’ Health Care Use?

Alan Monheit () and Jessica Vistnes

Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 2015, vol. 36, issue 4, 592 pages

Abstract: Public health insurance expansions for low- and middle-income children have improved private and social welfare by enhancing children’s access to socially-valued health services and improving their health. In this paper, we considered another welfare implication from expanded public coverage for children: Whether the savings in private insurance premiums and/or out-of-pocket medical spending from enrolling children in public coverage freed up income that was used for mothers’ own medical care. We used data from the 2001–2008 US Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and found that uninsured, low-income single mothers with children enrolled in public coverage used more preventive and other health care services than their counterparts who did not enroll their children in such coverage. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Keywords: Single mothers; Children; Health insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10834-014-9430-3

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