Expensive Children in Poor Families: Out-of-Pocket Expenditures for the Care of Disabled and Chronically Ill Children and Welfare Reform

Author(s)/Creator(s)

Anna Lukemeyer, Syracuse University
Marcia K. Meyers, Columbia University
Timothy M. Smeeding, Syracuse University

Description/Abstract

This study explores one aspect of the costs experienced by low-income families with one or more special needs children: direct, out-of-pocket expenses for items related to the child’s disability, such as special foods, transportation to medical clinics, or medical costs not covered by insurance. We find that almost half (46 percent) of a sample of California AFDC families with special needs children experienced some special expenses in the preceding month. About 20 percent of these low-income families experienced total costs exceeding $100. Families with severely disabled children were more likely to experience costs and tended to experience higher costs. While no more likely to experience special expenses, families of children with mental impairments tended to have higher costs than those with physical impairments. The primary impact of special expenses was to increase the percentage of families in deep poverty: those at or below 75 percent of poverty-level income. Taken as a group, however, families with special needs children appeared no more poor than other families. Much of this parity may be due to the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. Among families with severely disabled children, only 32 percent of those receiving SSI lived at or below poverty, while three quarters of those without SSI lived at or below poverty. Our findings suggest that out-of-pocket expenses are a substantial burden for some low-income families with special needs children and that the Supplemental Security Income program does a good job of alleviating these extraordinary outlays.

Document Type

Working Paper

Date

8-1997

Language

English

Funder(s)

Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

Funding ID

#94A5PE263A

Series

Income Security Policy Series

Acknowledgements

Judy Wallace, Ann Wicks, and Doug Wolf

Disciplines

Economic Policy | Economics | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Public Policy

ISSN

1061 1843

Additional Information

Policy studies paper no.17

Recommended Citation

Lukemeyer, Anna; Meyers, Marcia K.; and Smeeding, Timothy M., "Expensive Children in Poor Families: Out-of-Pocket Expenditures for the Care of Disabled and Chronically Ill Children and Welfare Reform" (1997). Center for Policy Research. 399.
https://surface.syr.edu/cpr/399

Source

Local Input

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.