Patterns of family health insurance coverage are changing, and the consequences of these changes for children are not well understood. Although children's public health insurance has been expanded in many states, little is known about how changes in family / parental insurance coverage affect children's healthcare. We propose to determine how changing patterns of family insurance affect children's health insurance stability and their utilization of healthcare services. We will study how two unique Oregon Health Plan (OHP) policy changes affected children: the loss of public coverage for >50,000 adults in 2003, and the random selection of 10,000 adults to gain OHP coverage in 2008 (Aim 1). We will extend our findings by conducting a national assessment (Aim 2), as we have done successfully with Oregon-based research in the past. We propose to test the following central hypotheses: (1) Children's insurance stability and utilization of recommended healthcare services (such as immunization, well-child visits, receipt of preventive screenings), will differ in association with their parents'insurance coverage status / type, independent of child coverage;(2) Children's insurance stability and utilization patterns will be differentially affected when parents gain or lose coverage;(3) Having a usual source of care will mitigate some of these differences.
Our aims and brief methods include:
Aim 1 : To assess the impact of 2003 and 2008 OHP policy changes on children's health insurance stability and utilization of healthcare services, we propose to use an innovative mixed-methods approach. We will create a linked dataset between OHP administrative data and electronic health record data from a network of over 100 Oregon safety net clinics. We will then conduct quantitative analyses of this linked dataset enriched by concurrent qualitative analyses of in-depth interviews with key informants and low-income families.
Aim 2 : To test how changing national family health insurance patterns affect children's health insurance stability and their utilization of healthcare services, we will conduct secondary analyses of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component. We will build on our expertise in pooling data years and linking children with parents, to better understand family insurance dynamics and longitudinal trends over time. This innovate project uses mixed methods to examine Oregon's natural policy experiments, including the 2008 Medicaid 'lottery.'Oregon's experience will be interpreted within the national context, informing longitudinal analyses of MEPS data. As national health insurance reforms are implemented, understanding the impact of changing patterns of family coverage on children's health will become even more important;thus, this project is timely, relevant, and well-positioned to inform state and national health policy debates.

Public Health Relevance

This innovate project aims to examine how changing patterns of family health insurance affect children's health insurance stability and utilization of healthcare services. It uses mixed methods to examine Oregon's natural policy experiments, including the 2008 Medicaid 'lottery.'Oregon's experience will be interpreted within the national context, informing longitudinal analyses of Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data. This project provides an unprecedented opportunity to study past changes, to establish a current baseline prior to the implementation of future health policy reforms, and then to evaluate the real-time impact of these changes.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HS018569-03
Application #
8233920
Study Section
Health Systems Research (HSR)
Program Officer
Hagan, Michael
Project Start
2010-07-01
Project End
2014-04-30
Budget Start
2012-05-01
Budget End
2013-04-30
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Oregon Health and Science University
Department
Family Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
096997515
City
Portland
State
OR
Country
United States
Zip Code
97239
Bailey, Steffani R; Marino, Miguel; Hoopes, Megan et al. (2016) Healthcare Utilization After a Children's Health Insurance Program Expansion in Oregon. Matern Child Health J 20:946-54
DeVoe, Jennifer E; Tillotson, Carrie J; Marino, Miguel et al. (2016) Trends in Type of Health Insurance Coverage for US Children and Their Parents, 1998-2011. Acad Pediatr 16:192-9
Gold, Rachel; Burdick, Tim; Angier, Heather et al. (2015) Improve Synergy Between Health Information Exchange and Electronic Health Records to Increase Rates of Continuously Insured Patients. EGEMS (Wash DC) 3:1158
DeVoe, Jennifer E; Tillotson, Carrie J; Angier, Heather et al. (2015) Predictors of children's health insurance coverage discontinuity in 1998 versus 2009: parental coverage continuity plays a major role. Matern Child Health J 19:889-96
DeVoe, Jennifer E; Marino, Miguel; Angier, Heather et al. (2015) Effect of expanding medicaid for parents on children's health insurance coverage: lessons from the Oregon experiment. JAMA Pediatr 169:e143145
DeVoe, Jennifer E; Crawford, Courtney; Angier, Heather et al. (2015) The Association Between Medicaid Coverage for Children and Parents Persists: 2002-2010. Matern Child Health J 19:1766-74
Angier, Heather; Gold, Rachel; Crawford, Courtney et al. (2014) Linkage methods for connecting children with parents in electronic health record and state public health insurance data. Matern Child Health J 18:2025-33
DeVoe, Jennifer E; Tillotson, Carrie J; Angier, Heather et al. (2014) Recent health insurance trends for US families: children gain while parents lose. Matern Child Health J 18:1007-16
Angier, Heather; Gold, Rachel; Gallia, Charles et al. (2014) Variation in outcomes of quality measurement by data source. Pediatrics 133:e1676-82
Angier, Heather; Gregg, Jessica; Gold, Rachel et al. (2014) Understanding how low-income families prioritize elements of health care access for their children via the optimal care model. BMC Health Serv Res 14:585

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