Kids in low-income families are 29 percent more likely to have regular doctors’ visits when their parents have Medicaid coverage, according to a new study designed by health economist Eric T. Roberts of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.
Even though the Children’s Health Insurance program provides coverage to kids in low-income families, giving parents health insurance facilitates access to the health care system.
"Physicians practicing in large, multi-group practices can see parents and children within the same practice. There are broad, spill-over effects of providing coverage to parents that accrue to children," said Roberts.
When kids have health care they’re more likely to grow into successful adults.
More than 700,000 Pennsylvanians have Medicaid coverage due to the state’s expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act.
The study was published this month in the journal Pediatrics.