Income Shocks and Out-of-Pocket Health Care Spending: Implications for Single-Mother Families

Irina B. Grafova (), Alan C. Monheit () and Rizie Kumar ()
Additional contact information
Irina B. Grafova: Rutgers University School of Public Health
Alan C. Monheit: Rutgers University School of Public Health
Rizie Kumar: University of Maryland

Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 2022, vol. 43, issue 3, No 6, 489-500

Abstract: Abstract We examine how out-of-pocket health care spending by single-mother families responds to income losses. We use eleven two-year panels of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for the period 2004–2015 and apply the correlated random effects estimation approach. We categorize income in relation to the federal poverty line (FPL): poor or near-poor (less than 125% of the FPL); low income (125 to 199% of the FPL); middle income (200 to 399% of the FPL); and high income (400% of the FPL or more). Income losses among high-income single-mother families lead a decline in out-of-pocket spending toward office-based care and emergency room care of $119–$138 and $30–$60, respectively. Among middle-income single-mother families, income losses lead to a $30 decline in out-of-pocket spending toward family emergency room care and a $45–$91 decline in mother’s out-of-pocket spending toward prescription medications. Further research should examine whether these declines compromise health status of single-mother family members.

Keywords: Single mothers; Family health care spending; Out-of-pocket spending; Chronic conditions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10834-021-09780-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jfamec:v:43:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10834-021-09780-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... es/journal/10834/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10834-021-09780-6

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Family and Economic Issues is currently edited by Joyce Serido

More articles in Journal of Family and Economic Issues from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().