TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bitler,Marianne
AU  - Gelbach,Jonah
AU  - Hoynes,Hilary
TI  - Welfare Reform and Health
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10549
PY  - 2004
Y2  - June 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10549
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10549.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Marianne Bitler
E-Mail: mbitler@nber.org

Jonah Gelbach
Department of Economics
University of Arizona
1130 E. Helen Street
Tucson, AZ 85721-0108
Tel: 510/643-0791
Fax: 510/643-8614
E-Mail: gelbach@gmail.com

Hilary W. Hoynes
Department of Economics
University of California, Davis
One Shields Ave.
Davis, CA  95616-8578
Tel: 530/752-3226
Fax: 530/752-9382
E-Mail: hwhoynes@ucdavis.edu
AB  - We investigate the relationship between welfare reform and health insurance, health care utilization, and self-reported measures of health status for women aged 20-45, using nationally representative data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. We present estimates from both difference-in-difference models (applied to single women and single women with children) and difference-in-difference-in-difference models (using married women and single women without children as comparison groups). We find that welfare reform is associated with reductions in health insurance coverage and specific measures of health care utilization, as well as an increase in the likelihood of needing care but finding it unaffordable. We find no statistically significant effects of reform on health status. Overall, effects are somewhat larger for Hispanics compared to blacks and low educated women.
ER  -