Reducing the Welfare Dependence of Single-Mother Families: Health-Related
Employment Barriers and Policy Responses
Upjohn Institute Staff Working Paper 96-43
Jean Kimmel
March 1996
Note: A revised draft with the title "Reducing the Welfare Dependence
of Unmarried Mothers: Health-Related Employment Barriers and Policy Responses" appears in
Eastern Economic Journal Vol. 23, No.2 (Spring 1997).
Abstract
The problem of rising health care costs and the related increased dependency on health
insurance coverage has moved to the forefront of the U.S. policy agenda in recent years and
was a fundamental component of President Clinton's 1992 campaign platform. However, the
President's 1994 health care reform proposal was unsuccessful, and current GOP proposals to
cut the rate of growth of Medicare and Medicaid spending while the eligible population and
costs both continue to grow fail to address the problem of coverage. In fact, one likely side
effect of the cost-shifting to private insurance carriers will be to increase the ranks of the
uninsured. This paper addresses one aspect of the coverage problem: specifically, how do the
competing interests of public and private coverage for single mothers affect these mothers'
willingness to participate in the labor market? And, how might restrictions concerning
welfare eligibility currently undergoing legislative debate enter into the equation?
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