Does Family Health Insurance Coverage Matter for Children's Health? Evidence from Auto-Enrollment in Wisconsin

In February 2008, 26,000 adults and 18,000 children who were family members of current beneficiaries of Wisconsin’s combined Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program were automatically enrolled into the program. Adults in families with incomes above 150% of the federal poverty line were subject to modest premium payments and disenrolled very quickly, while those with incomes below 150% of the federal poverty line tended to stay enrolled. Children were not subject to this premium limit. I use administrative enrollment and claims data from Wisconsin’s program and the exogenous differences in parental Medicaid coverage resulting from the auto-enrollment phenomenon in order to determine whether parental enrollment matters for children’s health care utilization and health outcomes. I find that the parental premium requirement resulted in their children leaving the program approximately three months sooner than children with parents who were not required to pay premiums. Utilization results are mixed, with some suggestive evidence that children with parents who had to pay a premium had fewer hospitalizations and outpatient visits.