Recent Findings in Managed Care Described by Researchers from Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) (Effects of Parental Public Health Insurance Eligibility On Parent and Child Health Outcomes): Managed Care

2022 JUL 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Investigators publish new report on Managed Care. According to news reporting out of University Park, Pennsylvania, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “Many states expanded their Medicaid programs to low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These expansions increased Medicaid coverage among low-income parents and their children.”

Funders for this research include Population Research Institute at Penn State University, NIH Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD).

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), “Whether these improvements in coverage and healthcare use lead to better health outcomes for parents and their children remains unanswered. We used longitudinal data on a large, nationally representative cohort of elementary-aged children from low-income households from 2010 to 2016. Using a difference-in-differences approach in state Medicaid policy decisions, we estimated the effect of the ACA Medicaid expansions on parent and child health. We found that parents’ self-reported health status improved significantly post-expansion in states that expanded Medicaid through the ACA by 4 percentage points (p < 0.05), a 4.7% improvement. We found no significant changes in children’s use of routine doctor visits or parents’ assessment of their children’s health status.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “We observed modest decreases in children’s body mass index (BMI) of about 2% (p < 0.05), especially for girls.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Effects of Parental Public Health Insurance Eligibility On Parent and Child Health Outcomes. Economics & Human Biology, 2022;44. Economics & Human Biology can be contacted at: Elsevier, Radarweg 29, 1043 Nx Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Economics & Human Biology - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economics-and-human-biology/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Maithreyi Gopalan, Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), University Park, PA 16801, United States. Additional authors for this research include Caitlin McPherran Lombardi and Lindsey Rose Bullinger.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2021.101098. 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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