Marriage and Health Care Coverage Among Families with Children. ASPE Research Brief

摘要

In the past decade, marriage has become an increasingly important focus of social policy and research. Studies show that marriage has a range of benefits for adults and children, including improved economic well-being and mental health (McLanahan and Sandefur 1994; Waite and Gallagher 2000; Wood et al. 2007). Marriage may also influence a familys access to different types of health care coverage. Married-parent families tend to have higher incomes and employment rates than single-parent families, so they may also have better access to employment-based and direct-purchased health care plans. In addition, many married-parent families have two workers with possible access to employment-based health care coverage rather than just one. However, married-parent families without employment-based or direct-purchased coverage may be less likely than single-parent families to be eligible for public health care coverage targeted to low-income families. To expand our understanding of the relationship between marital status and family health care coverage, this brief reports differences in coverage rates between married-parent and single-parent families, based on nationally representative data from the 2004 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS). The analysis focuses on families with children under age 18 who were living with their biological parents, adoptive parents, or stepparents. It excludes households headed by cohabiting parents or parents who were married but separated.