Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation Improves Children's Health Care Use: An Analysis of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's Natural Experiment.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit levels as provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) beginning in April 2009 on the health care use and health care needs of participating children. METHODS: Difference-in-differences analysis compared changes in health care use and needs between children in SNAP-eligible households and those in low-income but SNAP-ineligible households before and after ARRA's implementation, using data from the nationally representative National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Survey respondents reported on children's health care use and outstanding health care needs. Our sample included approximately 38,500 children in low-income households who completed the core NHIS, and a subsample of 15,000 sample children who reported additional information. RESULTS: Approximately 6% of low-income children had delayed care due to cost. Three percent and 4% of children in low-income households and low-income single-parent households, respectively, reported needing health care but not being able to afford it. The increase in SNAP benefits was associated with a 65% reduction in outstanding medication needs due to affordability among SNAP-eligible children, relative to low-income, ineligible children. There was also a reduction in the likelihood that children had seen a general doctor in the last year. Among children in single-parent households, SNAP benefit expansion was associated with a 3.2 percentage point decrease in needing but not being able to afford health care. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that even a small increase in household resources leads to reductions in outstanding health care needs due to affordability, particularly among children.