Just Don't Get Sick: Access to Health Care in the Aftermath of Welfare ReformThe ability to obtain health care is fundamental to the security, stability, and well-being of poor families. Government-sponsored programs provide temporary support, but as families leave welfare for work, they find themselves without access to coverage or care. The low-wage jobs that individuals in transition are typically able to secure provide few benefits yet often disqualify employees from receiving federal aid. Drawing upon statistical data and in-depth interviews with over five hundred families in Oregon, Karen Seccombe and Kim Hoffman assess the ways in which welfare reform affects the well-being of adults and children who leave the program for work. We hear of asthmatic children whose uninsured but working mothers cannot obtain the preventive medicines to keep them well, and stories of pregnant women receiving little or no prenatal care who end up in emergency rooms with life-threatening conditions. Representative of poor communities nationwide, the vivid stories recounted here illuminate the critical relationship between health insurance coverage and the ability to transition from welfare to work. |
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able access to health Acs and Loprest ADHD adults afford African Americans Americans asked asthma barriers benefits expired bills caseworker child Children's Defense Fund clinic concern costs covered daughter dental dental care dental insurance dentist depression diabetes doctor eligible emergency room employer employer-sponsored insurance employment families leaving TANF families leaving welfare food insecurity forgoing Guadalupe health care system health insurance health insurance coverage health problems Hispanic hospital income Kelly lack last six months less limited living losing low-income Maya Medicaid Molly needed OHP/Medicaid benefits Oregon Health Plan pain paperwork persons poor health poverty line premiums prescriptions rates respondents reported reveal rural sample second interview sick social story suffering TANF leavers teeth telephone survey tion told U.S. Census Bureau U.S. Department undocumented uninsured urban Wave 1 Wave welfare reform workers worry