Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/MartciaWade

This report addresses how Medicaid eligibility expansions have affected low-income children's access to care and service use. It outlines a theoretical model to identify determinants of children's health care use and also uses the model to identify data that would be required to evaluate the effects of expanding eligibility to low-income children on their access to care and service use. The assessment also identifies specific items that should be added to existing surveys to better evaluate the Medicaid eligibility expansions for low-income children. Included is a summary of the model formulated and the survey assessment.

Several health care reform proposals may result in Medicaid beneficiaries and the commercially insured being enrolled in a common purchasing pool. Little is known about the cost of Medicaid beneficiaries relative to the cost of the commercially insured within a given delivery system. This report analyzes the cost of Medicaid enrollees relative to the cost of commercial enrollees using data from nine health maintenance organizations. The cost data were derived from either claims data or encounter data.

This study examines factors that may have contributed to the rapid increase in Medicaid spending between 1989 and 1992. It analyzes the determinants of Medicaid enrollment growth, including the mandatory expansion of eligibility to low-income infants, children, and pregnant women, and it explores the equity effects of spending patterns within and across the states during the period of growth. The analyses use data for 49 states and the District of Columbia for 1984–1992.

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