Analysis of health insurance coverage and employment patterns from 1996 through 1999 reveals even higher uninsured rates and greater insurance instability among low-income adults and minorities than had been previously documented. Most low-income adults worked during the four years, but many had no or only intermittent job-based coverage. Low-income Hispanic adults were particularly hard hit: m...

OBJECTIVE We studied the effects of health insurance, health care needs, and demographic and area characteristics on out-of-pocket health care spending for low and higher income insured populations. MATERIALS AND METHODS We used the 2002 National Survey of America's Families to analyze out-of-pocket health spending. People were classified into 3 levels of expenses based on their out-of-pocket...

Although education pays off handsomely in the United States, children from low-income families attain less education than children from more advantaged families. In this article, Cecilia Elena Rouse and Lisa Barrow investigate why family background is so strongly linked to education. The authors show that family socioeconomic status affects such educational outcomes as test scores, grade retent...

Child poverty can be reduced by policies that help families earn more and supplement earned income with other sources of cash. A comprehensive antipoverty strategy could use a combination of these approaches. This article reviews recent U.S. experience with these broad approaches to reducing child poverty and discusses lessons from abroad for U.S. policymakers. The evidence reviewed suggests th...

BACKGROUND Lower socioeconomic and minority racial/ethnic status have been linked to delays in surgical care and thus higher appendiceal perforation rates. HYPOTHESIS Equal access to health care eliminates the previously reported socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in rates of appendiceal perforation. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study using discharge abstract data and US census data...

This study examined the existing literature on current early intervention processes for children who are deaf or hard of hearing who are from low-income or minority families. The review of literature includes a framework of understanding the dynamics of low-income households and cultural differences among African Americans, Latin Americans, and American Indians.

Experiencing poverty during childhood and adolescence may affect brain function. However, income is dynamic, and studies have not addressed whether income change relates to brain function. In the present study, we investigated whether intrinsic functional connectivity of default mode network (DMN) regions was influenced by mean family income and family income change. Parents of 68 Mexican-origi...

Public interest in promoting the self-sufficiency of families that depend on welfare concerns the ability of fathers, as well as mothers, to support their children through employment. Many welfare recipients are never-married women, and their children seldom receive child support payments. This article estimates the financial resources that go untapped when child support is not collected from t...

iron deficiency anemia is one of the nutritional problems of the low income, undernourished populations of the world. in iran, many rural and low socioeconomic urban groups suffer from iron deficiency anemia because of a low iron intake and the low level of public health. to overcome and to prevent iron deficiency, a program was suggested to enrich the bread with iron, calcium and some of the b...

This article examines Medicaid's evolution over the last four decades in its role as a health insurer for low-income families, a source of health and long-term care (LTC) coverage for people with disabilities, and as the supplement to Medicare for low-income aged and disabled Medicare beneficiaries. Medicaid's role and impact on each of these beneficiary groups is assessed.