Income Shocks and Out-of-Pocket Health Care Spending: Implications for Single-Mother Families

TY - JOUR

T1 - Income Shocks and Out-of-Pocket Health Care Spending

T2 - Implications for Single-Mother Families

AU - Grafova, Irina B.

AU - Monheit, Alan C.

AU - Kumar, Rizie

N1 - Funding Information: This research was funded by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ R01HS024053). We thank Samuel Zuvekas and Steven Hill of AHRQ for their expert advice on the use of MEPS data and development of longitudinal family weights. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

PY - 2022/9

Y1 - 2022/9

N2 - We examine how out-of-pocket health care spending by single-mother families responds to income losses. We use eleven two-year panels of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for the period 2004–2015 and apply the correlated random effects estimation approach. We categorize income in relation to the federal poverty line (FPL): poor or near-poor (less than 125% of the FPL); low income (125 to 199% of the FPL); middle income (200 to 399% of the FPL); and high income (400% of the FPL or more). Income losses among high-income single-mother families lead a decline in out-of-pocket spending toward office-based care and emergency room care of $119–$138 and $30–$60, respectively. Among middle-income single-mother families, income losses lead to a $30 decline in out-of-pocket spending toward family emergency room care and a $45–$91 decline in mother’s out-of-pocket spending toward prescription medications. Further research should examine whether these declines compromise health status of single-mother family members.

AB - We examine how out-of-pocket health care spending by single-mother families responds to income losses. We use eleven two-year panels of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for the period 2004–2015 and apply the correlated random effects estimation approach. We categorize income in relation to the federal poverty line (FPL): poor or near-poor (less than 125% of the FPL); low income (125 to 199% of the FPL); middle income (200 to 399% of the FPL); and high income (400% of the FPL or more). Income losses among high-income single-mother families lead a decline in out-of-pocket spending toward office-based care and emergency room care of $119–$138 and $30–$60, respectively. Among middle-income single-mother families, income losses lead to a $30 decline in out-of-pocket spending toward family emergency room care and a $45–$91 decline in mother’s out-of-pocket spending toward prescription medications. Further research should examine whether these declines compromise health status of single-mother family members.

KW - Chronic conditions

KW - Family health care spending

KW - Out-of-pocket spending

KW - Single mothers

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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-021-09780-6

DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-021-09780-6

M3 - Article

SN - 1058-0476

VL - 43

SP - 489

EP - 500

JO - Journal of Family and Economic Issues

JF - Journal of Family and Economic Issues

IS - 3

ER -