State and Local Budgetary Impact of HHS (Health and Human Services) Grant-in-Aid Policy: Historical Trends in AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children), Medicaid, and Food Stamp Benefits to AFDC Recipients: 1968-1980

摘要

The study provides a progress report on the Urban Institute's efforts to evaluate the factors determining Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefit levels, and the relationships between food stamps, Medicaid and AFDC benefits. The most important overall results include the following: (1) There is great diversity in the sources of welfare growth among regions and over time. (2) The early growth in total nominal benefits was evidently due to the increase in the number of recipients in the AFDC program, while subsequent nominal growth was due largely to inflation. (3) There was also a decline in the relative importance of AFDC benefits, with food stamp benefits responsible for this decline in AFDC's share in the first part of the 1968-80 period, and Medicaid playing the dominant role later on.