Insuring the Uninsured

"Insuring the Uninsured: Finding the Road to Success." Deborah Chollet, Frontiers of Health Services Management, July 2005. This article outlines strategies proposed to expand health insurance, many of which have been tried in limited ways, and describes experiences with these attempts. The discussion is organized from the perspective of two opposing points of view: (1) approaches that would support private coverage and largely rely on demand incentives; and (2) approaches that presuppose a more direct government role. The author reaches no conclusion about which strategy might be a wiser course of action but does take measure of the likely effects of each approach.

Families' Use of Public Assistance

Public Assistance Use Among Two-Parent Families: An Analysis of TANF and Food Stamp Program (FSP) Eligibility and Participation.” Anu Rangarajan, Laura Castner, and Melissa Clark, January 2005. Using data from the year 2000, this study looked at married-parent families to determine their eligibility and participation rates in TANF and FSP. The study found that eligibility and participation rates in the two programs are considerably lower for married-parent families than for single-parent families. Rates for cohabiting families generally lie between those of single- and married-parent families. Demographic characteristics and financial circumstances explain much of the difference in eligibility rates between married- and single-parent families. However, demographic characteristics, financial circumstances, and state program rules explain little of the observed differences in participation rates across the two family types.

Teenage Pregnancy and Parenting

“The Implementation of Maternity Group Home Programs: Serving Pregnant and Parenting Teens in a Residential Setting.” Lara K. Hulsey, Robert G. Wood, and Anu Rangarajan, April 2005. Maternity group homes offer an innovative and intensive approach to addressing the needs of an extremely vulnerable population—teenage mothers and their children who have no other suitable place to live. This report documents the implementation of such programs in seven states. Issues discussed include management, funding, target populations, services, staffing, and costs.

Methods Update

“Statistical Power for Random Assignment Evaluations of Education Programs.” Peter Z. Schochet, June 2005. This paper examines theoretical and empirical issues related to the statistical power of impact estimates for experimental evaluations of education programs. It considers designs in which random assignment is conducted at the school, classroom, or student level, using a unified analytic framework based on statistical methods from the literature. Focusing on standardized test scores of elementary school students, the author discusses appropriate precision standards, and, for each design, the required number of schools to achieve these standards. Clustering effects vary by design but are typically large; consequently, large school samples are required, suggesting that most impact studies will only be able to address broad questions rigorously.

On the Move: Staff News and Changes

Surveys and Information Services Division

Anne Ciemnecki has been named senior fellow. An expert in health-related surveys who led the first-ever large-scale telephone survey of people with disabilities, she is currently managing a nationwide study of domestic violence prevention models and directing data collection for a study to help improve quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries with chronic illnesses.

Linda Stork joined the company as director of the survey operations center. She has two decades of experience in conducting survey research and managing survey operations on studies for the federal government, states, foundations, universities, and other funders.

Research Division

John Czajka has been named senior fellow. Czajka, who has led many studies of health insurance initiatives, has made substantial contributions to the statistical community in the development of administrative data files, small area estimation, census taking, policy analysis, and the evaluation of estimates obtained from survey data.