IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v280y2021ics0277953621003300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of public health insurance expansions on the mental and behavioral health of girls and boys

Author

Listed:
  • Hamersma, Sarah
  • Ye, Jinqi

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of public health insurance expansions on the mental health care utilization and mental and behavioral health of children 6–17 years old. We leverage major expansions in public health insurance eligibility for children and adolescents under Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program during 1997–2002 to examine mental health care utilization and outcomes for children in the National Survey of America's Families. The study examines these dynamics by gender of children due to their distinct mental health care patterns and risks. The expansions are associated with an estimated 30% reduction in mental health care utilization for girls, but no measurable effect for boys, which may partly be accounted for by increased well-child visits for girls. Mental health improves only for teenagers; boys in particular have an estimated 22 percent increase in their probability of the highest level of health. Parents experience spillovers of lower insurance coverage for themselves – likely from dropping private family coverage for public child-only coverage – but slightly better mental health.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamersma, Sarah & Ye, Jinqi, 2021. "The effect of public health insurance expansions on the mental and behavioral health of girls and boys," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:280:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621003300
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113998
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621003300
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113998?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hamersma, Sarah & Maclean, Johanna Catherine, 2021. "Do expansions in adolescent access to public insurance affect the decisions of substance use disorder treatment providers?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Cuellar, Alison Evans & Markowitz, Sara, 2007. "Medicaid policy changes in mental health care and their effect on mental health outcomes," Health Economics, Policy and Law, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 23-49, January.
    3. Lo Sasso, Anthony T. & Buchmueller, Thomas C., 2004. "The effect of the state children's health insurance program on health insurance coverage," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 1059-1082, September.
    4. David Card & Lara D. Shore-Sheppard, 2004. "Using Discontinuous Eligibility Rules to Identify the Effects of the Federal Medicaid Expansions on Low-Income Children," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(3), pages 752-766, August.
    5. Sarah Hamersma & Matthew Kim & Brenden Timpe, 2019. "The Effect Of Parental Medicaid Expansions On Children'S Health Insurance Coverage," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(2), pages 297-311, April.
    6. repec:mpr:mprres:2807 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Gruber, Jonathan & Simon, Kosali, 2008. "Crowd-out 10 years later: Have recent public insurance expansions crowded out private health insurance?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 201-217, March.
    8. Hamersma, Sarah & Kim, Matthew, 2013. "Participation and crowd out: Assessing the effects of parental Medicaid expansions," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 160-171.
    9. Currie, Janet & Decker, Sandra & Lin, Wanchuan, 2008. "Has public health insurance for older children reduced disparities in access to care and health outcomes?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1567-1581, December.
    10. Reiss, Franziska, 2013. "Socioeconomic inequalities and mental health problems in children and adolescents: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 24-31.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jill Furzer & Maripier Isabelle & Boriana Miloucheva & Audrey Laporte, 2023. "Public drug insurance, moral hazard and children's use of mental health medication: Latent mental health risk‐specific responses to lower out‐of‐pocket treatment costs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 518-538, February.
    2. Li, Yanan & Sunder, Naveen, 2024. "Distributional effects of education on mental health," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Jill Furzer & Maripier Isabelle & Boriana Miloucheva & Audrey Laporte, 2021. "Public drug insurance and children’s use of mental health medication: Risk-specific responses to lower out-of-pocket treatment costs," CIRANO Working Papers 2021s-34, CIRANO.
    4. Beard, Lauren M. & Choi, Kyung Won, 2024. "Disrupted family reunification: Mental health, race, and state-level factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hamersma, Sarah & Maclean, Johanna Catherine, 2021. "Do expansions in adolescent access to public insurance affect the decisions of substance use disorder treatment providers?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    2. Dolores De La Mata, 2012. "The Effect Of Medicaid Eligibility On Coverage, Utilization, And Children'S Health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(9), pages 1061-1079, September.
    3. Guldi, Melanie & Hamersma, Sarah, 2023. "The effects of pregnancy-related Medicaid expansions on maternal, infant, and child health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    4. Wagner, Kathryn L., 2016. "Shock, but no shift: Hospitals' responses to changes in patient insurance mix," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 46-58.
    5. Thomas Buchmueller & John C. Ham & Lara D. Shore-Sheppard, 2015. "The Medicaid Program," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, Volume 1, pages 21-136, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Ellis, Cameron M. & Esson, Meghan I., 2021. "Crowd-Out and Emergency Department Utilization," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    7. Wagner, Kathryn L., 2015. "Medicaid expansions for the working age disabled: Revisiting the crowd-out of private health insurance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 69-82.
    8. Sarah Hamersma & Matthew Kim & Brenden Timpe, 2019. "The Effect Of Parental Medicaid Expansions On Children'S Health Insurance Coverage," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(2), pages 297-311, April.
    9. Pauline Leung & Alexandre Mas, 2018. "Employment Effects of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansions," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 206-234, April.
    10. Craig Garthwaite & Tal Gross & Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2014. "Public Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Employment Lock," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(2), pages 653-696.
    11. de la Mata, D, 2011. "The Effect of Medicaid on Children's Health: A Regression Discontinuity Approach," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 11/16, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    12. David W. Brown & Amanda E. Kowalski & Ithai Z. Lurie, 2015. "Medicaid as an Investment in Children: What is the Long-Term Impact on Tax Receipts"," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1979, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    13. Thompson, Owen, 2017. "The long-term health impacts of Medicaid and CHIP," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 26-40.
    14. Hamersma, Sarah & Kim, Matthew, 2013. "Participation and crowd out: Assessing the effects of parental Medicaid expansions," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 160-171.
    15. Lincoln H. Groves, 2020. "Still “Saving Babies”? The Impact Of Child Medicaid Expansions On High School Completion Rates," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 109-126, January.
    16. Phillip B. Levine & Diane Schanzenbach, 2009. "The Impact of Children's Public Health Insurance Expansions on Educational Outcomes," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, volume 12, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Witman, Allison, 2015. "Public health insurance and disparate eligibility of spouses: The Medicare eligibility gap," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 10-25.
    18. Bronchetti, Erin Todd, 2014. "Public insurance expansions and the health of immigrant and native children," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 205-219.
    19. Sarah Hamersma & Johanna Catherine Maclean, 2018. "Insurance Expansions and Children’s Use of Substance Use Disorder Treatment," NBER Working Papers 24499, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Thomas G. Koch, 2015. "All Internal in the Family?: Measuring Spillovers from Public Health Insurance," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(4), pages 959-979.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public health insurance; SCHIP and Medicaid thresholds; Mental and behavioral health; Gender differences;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
    • K2 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:280:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621003300. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.