Welfare Reform: Assessing the Effects on the Health of Young Children

In 1996, welfare reform replaced entitlement to cash assistance with temporary assistance often tied to efforts to get work or other behavioral requirements for receiving aid, and administration of the programs was transferred to states. Since then, millions have left the welfare rolls. No prior research has investigated the effects of these reforms on health outcomes of young children. This team of authors from Boston, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Little Rock, Minneapolis, and Washington, DC, interviewed over 9,000 caregivers in 6 urban medical settings across the US, of whom 2,718 had children who were either on welfare or had recently had their welfare payments stopped or decreased. The interviews focused on nutritional issues, but also included information about hospitalizations …