Findings from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Broaden Understanding of Health and Medicine (State-level Changes In Health Insurance Coverage and Parental Substance Use-associated Foster Care Entry): Health and Medicine

2022 JUL 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Researchers detail new data in Health and Medicine. According to news reporting originating in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “For many families whose children are placed in foster care, initial contact with the child welfare system occurs due to interactions with the healthcare system, particularly in the context of the opioid epidemic and increased attention to prenatal drug exposure. In the last decade, many previously uninsured families have gained Medicaid health coverage, which has implications for their access to healthcare services and visibility to mandatory reporters.”

Financial supporters for this research include NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD), National Science Foundation (NSF), Children’s Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, “Using administrative foster care case data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System Foster Care Files and health insurance data from the American Community Survey, this study analyzes the associations between state-level health insurance coverage and rates of foster care entry due to parental substance use between 2009 and 2019. State-level fixed effects models revealed that public, but not private, health insurance rates were positively associated with rates of foster care entry due to parental substance use. These results support the hypothesis that health insurance coverage may promote greater contact with mandatory reporters among low-income parents with substance use disorders.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Furthermore, this study illustrates how healthcare policy may have unintended consequences for the child welfare system.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: State-level Changes In Health Insurance Coverage and Parental Substance Use-associated Foster Care Entry. Social Science & Medicine, 2022;305. Social Science & Medicine can be contacted at: Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Social Science & Medicine - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/social-science-and-medicine/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Haley Stritzel, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115042. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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