Low-Income Children's Preventive Services Use: Implications of Parents' Medicaid Status

This article examines the effect of parents Medicaid status on the use of preventivehealth services by young children. Using datafrom the 1996 Medical Expenditure PanelSurvey (MEPS), we analyzed a logit modelfor receipt of any well-child visits (WCVs) thatcompared three groups of low-income chil-dren. The three groups, defined by the jointinsurance status of children and their par-ents, involved Medicaid pairs (both the childand the parent had Medicaid throughout theyear), mixed pairs (the child had Medicaidand the parent was uninsured), and unin-sured pairs (both child and parent were unin-sured).