IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/6029.html

Impact of Augmented Prenatal Care on Birth Outcomes of Medicaid Recipients in New York City

Author

Listed:
  • Theodore Joyce

Abstract

I examine whether New York State's Prenatal Care Assistance Program (PCAP) is associated with greater use of prenatal services and improved birth outcomes. PCAP is New York State's augmented prenatal care initiative that became a part of the Medicaid program after expansion in income eligibility thresholds in January, 1990. Data are from the linkage of Medicaid administrative files with New York City birth certificates (N=23,243). For women on cash assistance, I find PCAP is associated with a 20 percent increase in the likelihood of enrollment in WIC, an increase in mean birth weight of 35 grams and a 1.3 percentage point drop in the rate of low birth weight. Associations between PCAP and improved birth outcomes for women on medical assistance are similar, but appear contaminated by selection bias. Reductions in newborn costs associated with PCAP participation are modest, between $100-$300 dollars per recipient, and are insufficient to offset program expenditures.

Suggested Citation

  • Theodore Joyce, 1997. "Impact of Augmented Prenatal Care on Birth Outcomes of Medicaid Recipients in New York City," NBER Working Papers 6029, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6029
    Note: EH
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w6029.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reichman, Nancy E. & Florio, Maryanne J., 1996. "The effects of enriched prenatal care services on Medicaid birth outcomes in New Jersey," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 455-476, August.
    2. Kaestner, Robert & Joyce, Theodore & Wehbeh, Hassan, 1996. "The Effect of Maternal Drug Use on Birth Weight: Measurement Error in Binary Variables," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(4), pages 617-629, October.
    3. Singh, G.K. & Stella, M.Yu., 1996. "Adverse pregnancy outcomes: Differences between US- and foreign-born women in major US racial and ethnic groups," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 86(6), pages 837-843.
    4. Stein, Z. & Kline, J., 1983. "Smoking, alcohol and reproduction," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 73(10), pages 1154-1156.
    5. Gruber, J. & Currie, J., 1994. "Saving Babies: The Efficacy and Cost of Recent Expansions of Medicaid Eligibility for Pregnant Women," Working papers 94-11, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics.
    6. Kotelchuck, M., 1994. "An evaluation of the Kessner Adequacy of Prenatal Care Index and a proposed Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 84(9), pages 1414-1420.
    7. Currie, Janet & Gruber, Jonathan, 1996. "Saving Babies: The Efficacy and Cost of Recent Changes in the Medicaid Eligibility of Pregnant Women," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(6), pages 1263-1296, December.
    8. Joshua D. Angrist & Guido W. Imbens & D.B. Rubin, 1993. "Identification of Causal Effects Using Instrumental Variables," NBER Technical Working Papers 0136, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Joyce, Theodore, 1999. "Impact of augmented prenatal care on birth outcomes of Medicaid recipients in New York City," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 31-67, January.
    10. Robert A. Moffitt, 1996. "Selection Bias Adjustment in Treatment-Effect Models as a Method of Aggregation," NBER Technical Working Papers 0187, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Murphy, Kevin M & Topel, Robert H, 2002. "Estimation and Inference in Two-Step Econometric Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 20(1), pages 88-97, January.
    12. Barbara Devaney & Linda Bilheimer & Jennifer Schore, 1992. "Medicaid costs and birth outcomes: The effects of prenatal WIC participation and the use of prenatal care," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(4), pages 573-592.
    13. Buescher, P.A. & Roth, M.S. & Williams, D. & Goforth, C.M., 1991. "An evaluation of the impact of maternity care coordination on Medicaid birth outcomes in North Carolina," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 81(12), pages 1625-1629.
    14. Theodore Joyce & Andrew D. Racine & Sandra McCalla & Hassan Wehbeh, 1994. "The Impact of Prenatal Exposure to Cocaine on Newborn Costs and Length of Stay," NBER Working Papers 4673, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. O'Neill June E & O'Neill Dave M, 2008. "Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-45, April.
    2. Jason Abrevaya, 2006. "Estimating the effect of smoking on birth outcomes using a matched panel data approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 489-519.
    3. Hope Corman & Dhaval Dave & Nancy E. Reichman, 2018. "Evolution of the Infant Health Production Function," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(1), pages 6-47, July.
    4. Swati Mukerjee & Michael A. Quinn, 2008. "Federal Medicaid Assistance To States: Impact On Prenatal Care," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(3), pages 380-397, July.
    5. Ted Joyce & Diane Gibson & Silvie Colman, 2004. "The Changing Association Between Prenatal Participation in WIC and Birth Outcomes in New York City," NBER Working Papers 10796, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Swann Christopher A, 2010. "WIC Eligibility and Participation: The Roles of Changing Policies, Economic Conditions, and Demographics," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-37, March.
    7. Koen Jochmans, 2020. "Testing for correlation in error‐component models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 860-878, November.
    8. Daniel Powers, 2013. "Paradox Revisited: A Further Investigation of Racial/Ethnic Differences in Infant Mortality by Maternal Age," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 495-520, April.
    9. Samuel H. Fishman & S. Philip Morgan & Robert A. Hummer, 2018. "Smoking and Variation in the Hispanic Paradox: A Comparison of Low Birthweight Across 33 US States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 37(5), pages 795-824, October.
    10. Chloe N. East & Sarah Miller & Marianne Page & Laura R. Wherry, 2023. "Multigenerational Impacts of Childhood Access to the Safety Net: Early Life Exposure to Medicaid and the Next Generation's Health," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(1), pages 98-135, January.
    11. Dhaval M. Dave & Robert Kaestner & George L. Wehby, 2015. "Does Medicaid Coverage for Pregnant Women Affect Prenatal Health Behaviors?," NBER Working Papers 21049, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Pierre Lefebvre, 2006. "Le gradient santé / revenu familial des nouveau-nés québécois de 1998 après quatre ans : faible ou inexistant?," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 82(4), pages 523-595.
    13. Conway, Karen Smith & Deb, Partha, 2005. "Is prenatal care really ineffective? Or, is the 'devil' in the distribution?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 489-513, May.
    14. Karen Smith Conway & Lisa DeFelice Kennedy, 2004. "Maternal Depression and the Production of Infant Health," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(2), pages 260-286, October.
    15. Leonard, Jonathan & Mas, Alexandre, 2008. "Welfare reform, time limits, and infant health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1551-1566, December.
    16. Noghanibehambari, Hamid, 2025. "Revealed comparative disadvantage of infants: Exposure to NAFTA and birth outcomes," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    17. Currie, Janet & Gruber, Jonathan, 1996. "Saving Babies: The Efficacy and Cost of Recent Changes in the Medicaid Eligibility of Pregnant Women," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(6), pages 1263-1296, December.
    18. Ji Yan, 2015. "The Earlier and the More, the Healthier? The Effects of Prenatal Care Utilization on Maternal Health and Health Behaviors," Working Papers 15-08, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    19. Lara Gardner & Donna Gilleskie, 2006. "The Effects of State Medicaid Policies on the Dynamic Savings Patterns of the Elderly," NBER Working Papers 12208, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    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:nbr:nberwo:6029. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.