IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/1811.05421.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Health Care Expenditures, Financial Stability, and Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Author

Listed:
  • Yunhee Chang
  • Jinhee Kim
  • Swarn Chatterjee

Abstract

This paper examines the association between household healthcare expenses and participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) when moderated by factors associated with financial stability of households. Using a large longitudinal panel encompassing eight years, this study finds that an inter-temporal increase in out-of-pocket medical expenses increased the likelihood of household SNAP participation in the current period. Financially stable households with precautionary financial assets to cover at least 6 months worth of household expenses were significantly less likely to participate in SNAP. The low income households who recently experienced an increase in out of pocket medical expenses but had adequate precautionary savings were less likely than similar households who did not have precautionary savings to participate in SNAP. Implications for economists, policy makers, and household finance professionals are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Yunhee Chang & Jinhee Kim & Swarn Chatterjee, 2018. "Health Care Expenditures, Financial Stability, and Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)," Papers 1811.05421, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1811.05421
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1811.05421
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McIntyre, Diane & Thiede, Michael & Dahlgren, Göran & Whitehead, Margaret, 2006. "What are the economic consequences for households of illness and of paying for health care in low- and middle-income country contexts?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 858-865, February.
    2. Kayla Badding & E. Frank Stephenson & Melissa Yeoh, 2012. "Health-care reform and bankruptcy: evidence from Massachusetts," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(17), pages 1741-1744.
    3. Jacob Alex Klerman & Caroline Danielson, 2011. "The transformation of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 863-888, September.
    4. James Mabli & James C. Ohls, 2012. "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Dynamics and Employment Transitions: The Role of Employment Instability," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 34(1), pages 187-213.
    5. Gross, Tal & Notowidigdo, Matthew J., 2011. "Health insurance and the consumer bankruptcy decision: Evidence from expansions of Medicaid," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7-8), pages 767-778, August.
    6. Josephine Swanson & Christine Olson & Emily Miller & Frances Lawrence, 2008. "Rural Mothers’ Use of Formal Programs and Informal Social Supports to Meet Family Food Needs: A Mixed Methods Study," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 674-690, December.
    7. Cox, Donald & Jappelli, Tullio, 1993. "The Effect of Borrowing Constraints on Consumer Liabilities," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(2), pages 197-213, May.
    8. Angela Lyons & Hyungsoo Kim, 2007. "No Pain, No Strain: Impact of Health on the Financial Security of Older Americans," NFI Working Papers 2007-WP-12, Indiana State University, Scott College of Business, Networks Financial Institute.
    9. Brent Kreider & John V. Pepper & Craig Gundersen & Dean Jolliffe, 2012. "Identifying the Effects of SNAP (Food Stamps) on Child Health Outcomes When Participation Is Endogenous and Misreported," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(499), pages 958-975, September.
    10. Dean Jolliffe & James P. Ziliak (ed.), 2008. "Income volatility and Food Assistance in the United States," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number ivfa, August.
    11. Feenberg, Daniel & Skinner, Jonathan, 1994. "The Risk and Duration of Catastrophic Health Care Expenditures," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(4), pages 633-647, November.
    12. Baorong Guo, 2011. "Household Assets and Food Security: Evidence from the Survey of Program Dynamics," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 98-110, March.
    13. Sheila Mammen & Jean Bauer & Leslie Richards, 2009. "Understanding Persistent Food Insecurity: A Paradox of Place and Circumstance," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 92(1), pages 151-168, May.
    14. Irina Grafova, 2011. "Financial Strain and Smoking," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 327-340, June.
    15. James Mabli & James C. Ohls, 2012. "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Dynamics and Employment Transitions: The Role of Employment Instability," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 34(1), pages 187-213.
    16. Bhashkar Mazumder & Sarah Miller, 2014. "The Effects of the Massachusetts Health Reform on Financial Distress," Working Paper Series WP-2014-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    17. DeVaney, Sharon A. & Lytton, Ruth H., 1995. "Household insolvency: A review of household debt repayment, delinquency, and bankruptcy," Financial Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 137-156.
    18. Whitney Witt & Kristin Litzelman & Carmen Mandic & Lauren Wisk & John Hampton & Paul Creswell & Carissa Gottlieb & Ronald Gangnon, 2011. "Healthcare-Related Financial Burden Among Families in the U.S.: The Role of Childhood Activity Limitations and Income," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 308-326, June.
    19. Purtell, Kelly M. & Gershoff, Elizabeth T. & Aber, J. Lawrence, 2012. "Low income families' utilization of the Federal “Safety Net”: Individual and state-level predictors of TANF and Food Stamp receipt," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 713-724.
    20. Steven T. Yen & Donald J. Bruce & Lisa Jahns, 2012. "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation And Health: Evidence From Low‐Income Individuals In Tennessee," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 30(1), pages 1-12, January.
    21. Hyungsoo Kim & Wonah Yoon & Karen A. Zurlo, 2012. "Health Shocks, Out-of-Pocket Medical Expenses and Consumer Debt Among Middle-Aged and Older Americans," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 357-380, September.
    22. Greninger, Sue A. & Hampton, Vickie L. & Kitt, Karrol A. & Achacoso, Joseph A., 1996. "Ratios and benchmarks for measuring the financial well-being of families and individuals," Financial Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 57-70.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yunhee Chang & Swarn Chatterjee & Jinhee Kim, 2014. "Household Finance and Food Insecurity," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 499-515, December.
    2. Leanne Giordono & David W. Rothwell & Stephanie Grutzmacher & Mark Edwards, 2022. "Understanding SNAP use patterns among older adults," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(2), pages 609-634, June.
    3. Owen (O.A.) O'Donnell, 2019. "Financial Protection Against Medical Expense," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-010/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. Stacy Dickert‐Conlin & Katie Fitzpatrick & Brian Stacy & Laura Tiehen, 2021. "The Downs and Ups of the SNAP Caseload: What Matters?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(3), pages 1026-1050, September.
    5. Kyoung Tae Kim & Melissa J. Wilmarth, 2016. "Government Subsidies and Household Debt Burden After the Great Recession," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 349-358, September.
    6. Patrick Richard & Regine Walker & Pierre Alexandre, 2018. "The burden of out of pocket costs and medical debt faced by households with chronic health conditions in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-13, June.
    7. Christina Robinson, 2013. "Younger Siblings Can Be Good for Your Health: An Examination of Spillover Benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 172-184, June.
    8. Thomas Buchmueller & John C. Ham & Lara D. Shore-Sheppard, 2015. "The Medicaid Program," NBER Chapters, in: Economics of Means-Tested Transfer Programs in the United States, Volume 1, pages 21-136, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Justine Hastings & Ryan Kessler & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2021. "The Effect of SNAP on the Composition of Purchased Foods: Evidence and Implications," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 277-315, August.
    10. Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Maxim L. Pinkovskiy & Jacob Wallace, 2020. "The Great Equalizer: Medicare and the Geography of Consumer Financial Strain," Staff Reports 911, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    11. Gregory, Christian A. & Deb, Partha, 2015. "Does SNAP improve your health?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 11-19.
    12. Youngsoo Jang, 2016. "Income Inequality, Medical Conditions, and Household Bankruptcy," Proceedings of Economics and Finance Conferences 4206835, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    13. King, Christian, 2017. "Informal assistance to urban families and the risk of household food insecurity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 105-113.
    14. Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Maxim Pinkovskiy & Jacob Wallace, 2020. "Medicare and the Geography of Financial Health," Working Papers 2020-004, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    15. Heo, Wookjae & Lee, Jae Min & Park, Narang & Grable, John E., 2020. "Using Artificial Neural Network techniques to improve the description and prediction of household financial ratios," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    16. James P. Ziliak & Craig Gundersen, 2016. "Multigenerational Families and Food Insecurity," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 82(4), pages 1147-1166, April.
    17. James Mabli & Irina Cheban, "undated". "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participants' Employment Characteristics and Barriers to Work," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 1ebf87cab08b460692a80530c, Mathematica Policy Research.
    18. Jang, Youngsoo, 2019. "Credit, Default, and Optimal Health Insurance," MPRA Paper 95397, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Bergmans, Rachel S. & Berger, Lawrence M. & Palta, Mari & Robert, Stephanie A. & Ehrenthal, Deborah B. & Malecki, Kristen, 2018. "Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and maternal depressive symptoms: Moderation by program perception," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 1-8.
    20. Felipe Martínez & Rodrigo Cifuentes & Carlos Madeira & Rubén Poblete-Cazenave, 2013. "Measurement of Household Financial Risk with the Survey of Household Finances," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 682, Central Bank of Chile.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1811.05421. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.