ABSTRACT

As we saw in Chapter 3, spending on children under the Medicaid program constitutes one of the largest in-kind transfers to children and exceeds the amount spent on AFDC. The introduction of Medicaid in 1966 coincided with decreases in infant mortality, increases in hospitalization rates for poor children, and an increase in the frequency of doctor visits for poor children relative to non-poor children (Danzinger and Stern, 1990; Starfield, 1985; Colle and Grossman, 1978). Hence, Medicaid seems to have played an important role in reducing inequities in the utilization of health care.