Impacts of Public Insurance on Health Outcomes for Children in Immigrant Families

Abstract

Children in immigrant families are one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. population and are disproportionately represented among the poor and uninsured. Rules regarding their eligibility for public health insurance have changed substantially over the past 15 years, yet little is known about the impacts of such changes on these children's health or access to care. Assistant Professor of Economics Erin Todd Bronchetti discusses her research, which uses data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and variation in state Medicaid/SCHIP laws to answer this question, providing some of the first estimates of the impacts of public insurance on health outcomes and health care utilization for children in immigrant families.