The Health Effects of Medicaid Coverage for Children are Unclear
"The expansion of insurance coverage by Medicaid and private
health insurance was associated with better health ratings by
mothers of low-income black and Hispanic children, but it had no
effect on the reported health status of poor white children."
Between 1986 and 1994, the number of children from low-income
families enrolled in the Medicaid program, the government
program that finances medical care for the nation's poor and
near-poor families, rose by 71 percent. Medicaid spending on the
health care of these children climbed 107 percent in real terms
during that period. This was the largest expansion of public
health insurance coverage for children since the original
introduction of the Medicaid program. In addition, the Balanced
Budget Act of 1997 included a $24.3 billion block grant to
states to extend health insurance coverage to uninsured children
from families with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal
government's official poverty le