UP - Food Insecurity and Medicaid Spending (C5537) FY25

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

Our goal is to generate new evidence on whether alleviating childhood hunger and food insecurity can affect healthcare utilization and spending among children from low-income and resource poor environments. To do so, we leverage the timing of Kentucky’s universal meals program adoption–via school-based Community Eligibility Provisions (CEP)--throughout Kentucky. CEP programs offer free school meals to all students in high-poverty schools, and they are an extension of the National School Lunch Program. Despite important benefits (e.g., child food security, increased academic performance), we do not know whether CEP benefits may spillover to also affect disparities in healthcare utilization and spending that arise from food insecurity. Prior studies show declines in medical expenditures and hospital encounters following SNAP participation and expansions, but a gap in knowledge exists regarding the impacts of CEPs on health outcomes beyond food security. Our guiding hypothesis is CEPs can decouple the strong link between food insecurity and healthcare use for vulnerable school-aged children. We anticipate that declines in food insecurity due to CEP programs will increase affordability and compliance of lower-cost healthcare (e.g., preventive care and screenings in office-based settings), therefore delays in care due to financial constraint will occur less frequently.
StatusActive
Effective start/end date10/4/246/30/26

Funding

  • KY Cabinet for Health and Family Services: $103,275.00

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