TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kaestner,Robert
AU  - Joyce,Theodore
AU  - Racine,Andrew
TI  - Does Publicly Provided Health Insurance Improve the Health of Low-Income Children in the United States
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6887
PY  - 1999
Y2  - January 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6887
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6887.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Robert Kaestner
Institute of Government and Public Affairs
University of Illinois
815 West Van Buren Street, Suite 525
Chicago, IL  60607
Tel: 312/996-8227
E-Mail: kaestner.robert@gmail.com

Theodore J. Joyce
Baruch College & Graduate Center, CUNY
365 Fifth Ave, 5th Fl
New York, NY 10016-4309
Tel: 212/817-7960
Fax: 212/817-1597
E-Mail: theodore.joyce@baruch.cuny.edu

Andrew D. Racine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Children's Hos
Division of General Pediatrics
1621 Eastchester Road
Bronx, NY 10461
Tel: 718/405-8092
Fax: 212/817-1597
E-Mail: aracine@montefiore.org
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1999-07-01
AB  - In this study we analyze the effect of Medicaid on children's heath.  We examine the effect of Medicaid on a variety of health outcomes using two data sources: the National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS) and the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) of hospital discharges.  Using the NHIS, we examine the effect of Medicaid participation on maternal ratings of child health and maternal reports of the number of bed days in the past year (i.e. morbidity).  The NIS data was used to examine the effect of Medicaid program expansions on the incidence of ambulatory care sensitive (ACS) discharges.  ACS discharges are known to be sensitive to medical intervention and are objective measures of children's health.  The results of this paper provide at best weak support for the hypothesis that Medicaid improves the health of low-income children.
ER  -