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Which States Enroll Their Medicaid‐ Eligible, Citizen Children with Immigrant Parents?
Author(s) -
Seiber Eric E.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
health services research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.706
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1475-6773
pISSN - 0017-9124
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2012.01467.x
Subject(s) - medicaid , immigration , medicine , american community survey , ethnic group , payment , demography , probit model , family medicine , health care , population , environmental health , political science , business , sociology , law , finance , machine learning , computer science , census
Objective To identify which states achieve comparable enrollment rates for M edicaid‐eligible, citizen children with immigrant and nonimmigrant parents. Data Source A total of 810,345 M edicaid‐eligible, citizen children drawn from the 2008–2010 A merican C ommunity S urvey. Study Design This study estimates a state fixed‐effects probit model of uninsured status for M edicaid‐eligible, citizen children. State and immigrant family interaction variables test whether citizen children in immigrant families have a higher probability of remaining uninsured compared to children in nonimmigrant families. Simulations predict the uninsured rates for M edicaid eligible children in immigrant and nonimmigrant families and rank states by the differences between the two groups. Principal Findings While some states have insignificant and near zero differences in predicted uninsured rates, many states have enrollment disparities reaching 20 percent points between citizen children with immigrant and nonimmigrant parents. Conclusions Many states have large differences in enrollment rates between their M edicaid‐eligible, citizen children with immigrant and nonimmigrant parents. Addressing these enrollment disparities could improve the health status of citizen children in immigrant families and earn C hildren's H ealth I nsurance P rogram R eauthorization A ct bonus payments for many states.