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Medicaid expenditures for children living with smokers

Douglas E Levy1, Nancy A Rigotti, Jonathan P Winickoff

  • 1Mongan Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. dlevy3@partners.org

BMC Health Services Research
|May 27, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Secondhand smoke exposure in children is linked to higher emergency department costs. Living with smokers did not significantly impact overall Medicaid spending for children, but modestly increased emergency care expenses.

Area of Science:

  • Public Health
  • Environmental Health
  • Health Economics

Background:

  • Secondhand smoke exposure in children is a significant public health concern, linked to increased illness.
  • Medicaid expenditures represent a substantial portion of healthcare costs for children in the United States.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To estimate and compare Medicaid expenditures for children exposed to secondhand smoke versus those not exposed.
  • To analyze the economic impact of household smoking on children's healthcare utilization.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized data from the Medical Expenditures Panel Surveys (2000-2007) for children aged 0-11 years.
  • Assessed household smoker presence via adult self-reports and analyzed service-specific Medicaid expenditures.
  • Employed multivariate analyses to control for child, parent, and geographic factors.

Main Results:

  • Children with Medicaid expenditures were nearly twice as likely to reside with a smoker.
  • No significant difference in overall annual Medicaid expenditures was found based on household smoker presence.
  • Children living with smokers incurred an average of $10 more in annual emergency department expenditures.

Conclusions:

  • Living with smokers, a proxy for secondhand smoke exposure, does not significantly affect children's overall short-term Medicaid costs.
  • A modest increase in emergency department expenditures was observed for children exposed to secondhand smoke.
  • Further research is needed to determine the long-term health and economic consequences of secondhand smoke exposure.
Abstract

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