This paper examines the long-term impact of exposure to Medicaid in early childhood on adult health and economic status. The staggered timing of Medicaid's adoption across the states created meaningful variation in cumulative exposure to Medicaid for birth cohorts that are now in adulthood. Analyses of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics suggest exposure to Medicaid in early childhood (age 0-5) is associated with statistically significant and meaningful improvements in adult health (age 25-54), and this effect is only seen in subgroups targeted by the program. Results for economic outcomes are imprecise and we are unable to come to definitive conclusions. Using separate data we find evidence of two mechanisms that could plausibly link Medicaid's introduction to long-term outcomes: contemporaneous increases in health services utilization for children and reductions in family medical debt.

Objective. Examine measurement error to public health insurance in the American Community Survey (ACS). Data Sources/Study Setting. The ACS and the Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS). Study Design. We tabulated the two data sources separately and then merged the data and examined health insurance reports among ACS cases known to be enrolled in Medicaid or expansion Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits. Data Collection/Extraction Methods. The two data sources were merged using protected identification keys. ACS respondents were considered enrolled if they had full benefit Medicaid or expansion CHIP coverage on the date of interview. Principal Findings. On an aggregated basis, the ACS overcounts the MSIS. After merging the data, we estimate a false-negative rate in the 2009 ACS of 21.6 percent. The false-negative rate varies across states, demographic groups, and year. Of known Medicaid and expansion CHIP enrollees, 12.5 percent were coded to some other coverage and 9.1 percent were coded as uninsured. Conclusions. The false-negative rate in the ACS is on par with other federal surveys. However, unlike other surveys, the ACS overcounts the MSIS on an aggregated basis. Future work is needed to disentangle the causes of the ACS overcount.

The Affordable Care Act will have important impacts on state Medicaid programs, likely increasing participation among populations that are currently eligible but not enrolled. The size of this "welcomemat" effect is of concern for two reasons. First, the eligible but uninsured constitute a substantial share of the uninsured population in some states. Second, the newly eligible population will affect states' Medicaid caseloads and budgets. Using the Massachusetts 2006 health reforms as a case study and controlling for other factors, we found that among lowincome parents who were previously eligible for Medicaid in Massachusetts, Medicaid enrollment increased by 16.3 percentage points, and Medicaid participation by those without private coverage increased by 19.4 percentage points, in comparison to a group of control states. In many states the potential size of the welcome-mat effect could be even larger than what we observed in Massachusetts. Our analysis has potentially important implications for other states attempting to predict the impact of this effect on their budgets.

Housing assistance policies may lead to improved mental health for children and adolescents by improving housing quality, stability, and affordability. We use a unique data linkage of the National Health Interview Survey and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development administrative data to examine the impact of housing assistance on parent-reported mental health outcomes for children ages 2 to 17 (N = 1,967). We account for selection into housing assistance using a pseudo-waitlist method that compares children receiving assistance to those who will enter housing assistance within two years of their interview. Compared to those in the pseudo-waitlist group, we find that children living in public housing have better mental health outcomes. We do not find similar benefits for children receiving vouchers. Our results suggest that housing assistance policies can have a positive impact on mental health among disadvantaged children.

The results underscore a need for rigorous studies in which authors evaluate specific housing assistance programs in relation to child outcomes to establish what types of housing assistance, if any, serve as an effective strategy to reduce disparities and advance equity across the lifespan.