Access and use by children on Medicaid: does state matter?

Although Medicaid is a central component of health care for children, the program is not uniform across the states. Using state and nationally representative data from the 1997 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF), a survey of the economic, health and social characteristics of children, nonaged adults and their families, we examine differences in access and use by children on Medicaid across 13 states, and compare those differences to national estimates. We find significant differences in access and use across the states for children on Medicaid. The characteristics of the children and their local health care environment explain some, but not all, of the state differences in access and use.