ABSTRACT

Prior to the mid-1980s, Medicaid eligibility for children had largely been restricted to children in one-parent families participating in welfare programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children. From the mid-1980s through 1991, Congress expanded Medicaid to cover families not in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, targeting near-poor pregnant women as well as children in twoparent families with low incomes (Blumberg, Dubay, and Norton 2000; Yazici and Kaestner 2000; Shore-Sheppard 2005).