My latest at AcademyHealth:
There are many arguments as to why Medicaid is a good thing for children. Many studies have been done comparing outcomes for children with and without Medicaid. Many more have looked at how access to the health care system is different for kids with Medicaid.
But concerns about Medicaid, and arguments about whether to expand it, inevitably devolve to the cost. Implicit in that concern is whether it’s “worth it” to have children on Medicaid. Are the benefits worth the cost? Might they be achieved by more efficient means? Perhaps money put into Medicaid could be used for other things.
Many of these discussions, however, ignore some of the potential long-term return on investment of the program for children. In a recent NBER paper, David Brown, Amanda Kowalski, and Ithai Lurie attempted to get at that question. “Medicaid as an Investment in Children: What is the Long-Term Impact on Tax Receipts?”
I discuss this paper, and what the results mean. Go read!
