Parent's Healthcare Coverage Boosts Children's Reading Scores, Study Reveals

A recent study showed that kids whose parents became newly eligible for Medicaid coverage improved their reading scores.

The "Impacts of Publicly Funded Health Insurance for Adults on Children's Academic Achievement," authored by Caitlin Lombardi and part of a three-paper series on the repercussions of publicly funded health insurance for parents on their children's health and development, discovered a significant boost to kids' reading scores as a result of their parents having access and gaining healthcare coverage.

Lombardi and co-researchers highlighted the children's progress of 2.3 percent higher reading scores when their parents became eligible for Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Further, it was found that children experiencing the same economic circumstances who are settling in the states without Medicaid eligibility do not have the same progress.

Indirect impacts of state and federal policies

Lombardi further pointed out that it may seem that a child's reading skills are of less value when linked to parental health insurance, but data showed the "positive ripple effects" of a family-beneficial policy beyond its intended purpose.

The households with eligible parents who got their public health insurance under the ACA were said to have "spent more time reading at home and more time eating dinner together," Lombardi stressed. These may have been two reasons behind the boost in the children's reading skills, UCONN Today reported.

"It was very exciting to find that result. In general, these papers and much of my research looks at how policies, at both the state and federal levels, can impact children's development and their parents' and families' well-being. And some of these [impacts] are indirect," expressed the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences assistant professor.

Aside from the policy of healthcare coverage for parents, the policies such as expanding healthcare coverage for children and in-classroom reading interventions also resulted in twice the increase in reading scores.

Read More: Medicaid Extensions Grow for New Mothers in the US

'Welcome mat effect'

ACA, or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is the comprehensive healthcare reform law signed in March 2020.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the act has three major purposes. First, it makes health insurance affordable for more people, providing consumers with premium tax credits that lower the cost for families with incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). Second, it expands the Medicaid program to cover all income-earning adults with less than 138 percent of the FPL. Lastly, the law lowers healthcare costs by supporting "innovative medical care delivery."

ACA does not state its goal of improving children's literacy, yet it has been one of its positive, indirect impacts. The data of this current study then is "revelatory" and essential for public policy and family science researchers, Lombardi concluded.

The research also discovered the "welcome mat effect," a vital phenomenon where the increased access to health coverage for adults indirectly leads to more kids receiving coverage. While the ACA only applied to adults, more children were enrolled in public insurance plans after its implementation.

Researchers explained that this might be because, through the ACA, parents easily had their coverage, which provided a "welcome mat" to the world of public insurance. The knowledge gained about its benefits could have streamlined the decision and process of enrolling their children. Moreover, since the ACA lessened the burdens of low-income families financially, parents were able to invest more in health services for their kids.

Related article: Medicaid Coverage: Millions of American Children at Risk of Losing Health Care Access