Socio-Economic Status and Child Health: Does Public Health Insurance Narrow the Gap?
基于美国数据，研究公共健康保险对儿童的影响，发现为贫困儿童提供保险能缩小健康与医疗服务利用方面的社会经济差距，但医疗资源配置仍存在低效和不平等。
Drawing on evidence from the United States, this paper examines the effects of public health insurance on children. Recent expansions of American public health insurance programs to previously ineligible children have created a great deal of variation that can be used to identify their effects. Results indicate that providing public insurance to poor children narrows socioeconomic gaps in utilization and health among children. However, inefficiencies and inequalities in the allocation of health care remain, which suggests that universality and outreach programs are also important components of the public health systems common in Europe. Copyright 1995 by The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics.