New Equity in Health Findings from Department of Public Health Described (Do state laws reduce uptake of Medicaid/CHIP by U.S. citizen children in immigrant families: evaluating evidence for a chilling effect): Health and Medicine – Equity in Health

2022 MAY 03 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- New study results on equity in health have been published. According to news originating from the Department of Public Health by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Restrictive state laws aimed at immigrants can have unintended consequences for health insurance coverage of United States citizens in immigrant families due to both actual barriers created by the laws and perceived barriers among immigrants. Increasing numbers of children in the U.S. are part of immigrant families, and these children are more likely to be living in poverty than their counterparts in native families.”

Our news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Department of Public Health: “Immigrant restrictive policies could lead to reduced access to Medicaid and CHIP even for citizen children in immigrant families. Using data from the Current Population Survey’s (CPS) March Supplement, linear probability models with difference-in-differences (DD) estimates compare probability of enrollment in Medicaid/CHIP among low-income U.S. citizen children in immigrant families and low-income children in native families and U.S. citizen children in immigrant families in states that did not adopt restrictive legislation, in order to estimate the impact of restrictive state laws aimed at immigrants. An additional model explores the effect of mother’s citizenship on enrollment among all immigrant families in states with and without restrictive legislation. Results suggest a significant chilling effect where the magnitude of the effect varies according to family demographics and by the types of laws being passed. Immigrant restrictive social welfare laws being adopted have a strong negative effect on U.S. citizen children in immigrant families’ enrollment in Medicaid/CHIP, a 5.5 percentage point reduction in coverage. Among the subsample of only immigrant families, results point toward a global chilling effect created by an overall restrictive policy environment. All immigrant restrictive related laws, including those aimed at education, job restriction, identification access, and social welfare restrictions have a significant and negative impact on access to public insurance for U.S. citizen children with non-citizen mothers.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “This research shows that the unintended consequence of restrictive state legislation aimed at immigrants is the reduction in access to Medicaid and CHIP by low-income U.S. citizen children living in immigrant families. Reduced access to health insurance can increase unmet medical needs for an already vulnerable group.”

For more information on this research see: Do state laws reduce uptake of Medicaid/CHIP by U.S. citizen children in immigrant families: evaluating evidence for a chilling effect. International Journal for Equity in Health, 2022,21(1):1-14. (International Journal for Equity in Health - http://www.equityhealthj.com/). The publisher for International Journal for Equity in Health is BMC.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-022-01651-2.

Our news editors report that more information may be obtained by contacting Sylvia E. Twersky, Department of Public Health, College of New Jersey School of Nursing.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)