Health and Medical Studies

Estimating A Local Hedonic Price Index For Group Health Insurance

Abe Dunn – U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis; Bryn Whitmire – U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

This project uses data from the Insurance Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-IC) in conjunction with the Longitudinal Business Database to develop a methodology to construct a quality-and-risk-adjusted hedonic price index for health insurance premiums. The hedonic price index will be an estimate of the premium level in a local geographic market in a particular year, holding quality and risk constant. Since this project will also examine the role that geography plays in setting these premiums, the estimated premiums will be used to test whether insurance prices differ across local geographic markets. In so doing, this project will also examine the factors that affect health insurance premiums and will develop a method to impute for non-response based on these factors.

Neighborhood Context, Weight, And Weight-Related Behaviors Among Mexican American Children (NCHS)

Megan Lemmon – Pennsylvania State University; Susana Sanchez Quiros – Pennsylvania State University; Molly Dondero – Pennsylvania State University; Jennifer Van Hook – Pennsylvania State University

Poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and obesity have reached alarming levels in the United States, and children of immigrants are especially vulnerable to these serious health problems. Mexican-origin boys in immigrant households have particularly high obesity rates relative to all other children, including Hispanic boys in native households, but how immigration to and settlement in the U.S. contribute to such high levels of obesity is unclear. We theorize that community factors contribute to the risk of obesity for children of Mexican immigrants and that the influence of community contexts are likely to vary by household socioeconomic status and level of exposure to the United States. This project focuses on three specific research questions: (1) How is community context related to Mexican children’s weight and weight-related behaviors? (2) How do the associations of community context with children’s weight and weight-related behaviors vary by household socioeconomic status and household weight-related characteristics? (3) How do the associations of community context with children’s weight and weight-related behaviors vary by indicators of householder members’ and children’s exposure to the United States? Using the 1999-2009 continuous NHANES the researchers link community characteristics, socioeconomic disadvantage, racial-ethnic composition, and size and maturity of the Latino community to children’s records in the NHANES.

Foster Care Placement And Childhood Inequalities: Evidence From The National Survey Of Children’s Health (NCHS)

Kristin Turney – University of California, Irvine

Children in foster care have been exposed to a host of disadvantages prior to placement that, when combined with the abuse and neglect in their homes of origin, makes them an extremely vulnerable and marginalized group. Although the number of children in foster care on any given day is small — ranging from slightly more than 0.5% in 2011 to 0.8% in 2000 — approximately 6% of American children will ever be placed in foster care. This project uses restricted data from the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) to answer two research questions. First, to what extent do children placed in foster care experience mental health problems, physical health problems, severe deprivation, and family functioning relative to other groups of American children (e.g., the general population of American children, children in other types of complex families)? Second, among children in foster care, how does state variation in foster care payments explain variation in wellbeing? Taken together, these analyses will provide insight into the lives of foster care children and provide broad insight into the how foster care placement may exacerbate or ameliorate the intergenerational transmission of poverty.