An observational study of health insured visits for children following Medicaid eligibility expansion for adults among a linked cohort of parents and children

Despite its focus on adults, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansion led to increased health insurance enrollment for children in the United States. Previous studies looked at parent and child insurance changes separately, or used a single survey response item to understand changes in health insurance for parents and children. It is, however, important to understand the connection between parent and child insurance changes together (not individually) using data sources that account for insurance over time. Therefore, to understand the association of parental health insurance on their children’s coverage, leveraging a cohort of linked families seen in community health centers (CHCs), we used electronic health records to link a cohort of parents and children with ≥1 visit to a CHC in a Medicaid expansion state pre- (1/1/2012–12/31/2013) and ≥1 visit post-ACA (1/1/2014–12/31/2018) and determined primary payer type for all visits. This observational, cohort study assessed the rate of insured visits for children pre- to post-ACA across four parental insurance groups (always insured, gained Medicaid, discontinuously insured, never insured) using Poisson mixed effects models. We included 335 CHCs across 7 United States. Insurance rates were highest (~95 insured visits/100 visits) for children of parents who were always insured; rates were lowest for children of parents who were never insured (~83 insured visits/100 visits). Children with a parent who gained Medicaid had 4.4% more insured visits post- compared to pre-ACA (adjusted relative rates = 1.044, 95% confidence interval: 1.014, 1.074). When comparing changes from pre- to post-ACA between parent insurance groups, children’s insured visit rates were significantly higher for children of parents who gained Medicaid (reference) compared to children of parents who were always insured (adjusted ratio of rate ratio: 0.963, confidence interval: 0.935–0.992). Despite differences in Medicaid eligibility for children and adults, health insurance patterns were similar for linked families seen in CHCs. Findings suggest consideration should be paid to parent health insurance options when trying to increase children’s coverage.