Welfare Reform

"Living Arrangements and School Dropout Among Teen Mothers Following Welfare Reform." Heather Koball, Social Science Quarterly, December 2007. The 1996 welfare reform laws required parents under the age of 18 to live with their parents or an adult relative and enroll in school to be eligible for benefits. This article examines whether minor mothers were less likely to drop out of school and more likely to live with parents following welfare reform. Data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey 1988 and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 were used in difference-in-difference analyses. The article notes that after welfare reform, teen mothers living with parents increased and dropout rates decreased.

Medicaid Buy-In

"How Do Medicaid Buy-In Participants Who Collect Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits Use SSA Work Incentive Programs?" Working with Disability, Work and Insurance In Brief #7. Kristin Andrews, Bob Weathers, and Su Liu, December 2007. Medicaid Buy-In participants who receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits may not be taking full advantage of the available work incentive programs that can improve their prospects of finding employment and attaining economic self-sufficiency. This policy brief, the seventh in a series on working with disability, reveals that only 23 percent of Medicaid Buy-In participants who received SSDI benefits between 2000 and 2005 took part in a work incentive program. The brief summarizes Mathematica's study of participation rates for four SSDI work incentive programs: Trial Work Period, Extended Period of Eligibility, Impairment-Related Work Expenses, and Ticket to Work. The Trial Work Period program was the most utilized,with approximately 16 percent of beneficiaries participating. The Extended Period of Eligibility program had the second highest participation rate, 7 percent, with Ticket to Work running a close third with 6 percent. Fewer than one percent utilized the Impairment-Related Work Expenses incentive.

"Premium Increases in State Health Insurance Programs: Lessons from a Case Study of the Massachusetts Medicaid Buy-in Program." Gina A. Livermore, Nanette Goodman, Fred Hooven, and Lobat Hashemi, Inquiry, winter 2007/2008. In March 2003, Massachusetts increased the premiums it charges to most enrollees in its CommonHealth-Working (CH-W) program—the state's insurance program for working age adults with disabilities. This article reports on the impact of the premium change on disenrollment. Findings indicate that the premium change had only a small, but statistically significant impact on program exits. The CH-W experience differs from other state programs that saw substantial enrollment declines in response to new or increased premiums. This is likely due to factors that make CH-W different from other programs, the most important being administrative procedures intended to minimize disenrollment caused by nonpayment of premiums.

School Food Programs

"Erroneous Payments in the NSLP and SBP. Volume I: Findings. NSLP/SBP Access, Participation, Eligibility, and Certification Study." Michael Ponza, Philip Gleason, Lara Hulsey, and Quinn Moore, October 2007. Erroneous payments in the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs occur when school districts claim reimbursement at the free or reduced-price rate for meals served to students who are not eligible. They can also happen when schools don't claim reimbursement for children who have applied and are eligible (called certification error). Errors in reporting the number and type of meals in claims for reimbursement (called noncertification error) also create erroneous payments. This report from Mathematica's Access, Participation, Eligibility, and Certification study estimates the amounts and rates of erroneous payments. Slightly more than one in five children was certified inaccurately or erroneously denied meal benefits. The authors also found that household reporting error was substantially more prevalent than administrative error. Approximately nine percent of total reimbursements for both the lunch and breakfast programs were erroneous due to certification errors, although the amounts and rates of most erroneous payments due to noncertification errors were relatively small. Sampling and Data Analysis Appendices.

Health Care Disparities

"Measuring Trends in Mental Health Care Disparities, 2000–2004." Benjamin L. Cook, Thomas McGuire, and Jeanne Miranda, Psychiatric Services, December 2007. This article reports on trends in disparities in mental health care by use of an improved method that applies the Institute of Medicine (IOM) definition of racial-ethnic disparities. Data from the 2000–2001 and 2003–2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys were used to estimate trends in two global measures of racial-ethnic disparities in mental health care: (1) having any mental health visit, and (2) total mental health care expenditure in the past year. Disparities between African Americans, Hispanics, and white Americans were examined by applying a new methodology based on the IOM definition of racial disparity that adjusts for health status and allows for mediation of racial-ethnic disparities through socioeconomic factors. Results found by use of this measure show that the mental health care system continues to provide less care to persons in African American and Hispanic minority groups than to whites, suggesting the need for policy initiatives to improve services for these minority groups.

Maternal Mental Health

"The Co-Occurrence of Smoking and a Major Depressive Episode Among Mothers 15 Months After Delivery." Robert C. Whitaker, Sean M. Orzol, and Robert S. Kahn, Preventive Medicine, December 2007. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, the authors examine the association between maternal smoking 15 months after delivery and the occurrence of a major depressive episode in the prior 12 months. After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, the authors found that the prevalence of a major depressive episode was higher among smokers than nonsmokers. Smoking was also more common among mothers with a major depressive episode than in those without one. This suggests that these conditions should not be diagnosed or treated in isolation from each other and that the care of mothers and children should be integrated.

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