Hand in Hand: The Impacts of Parental Insurance on Child Health

Abstract

Healthy parents equals healthy kids. While this statement seems intuitive, policy does not always translate as so. Insurance for children is widely available, yet more controversial for adults. However, this neglects the relationship between parent and child, and the influence their health can have on each other. This paper utilizes parental insurance is a tangible measure that can be used as a proxy to establish correlations and further the conversation about parental and child social networks in health. After exploring a brief history of insurance coverage, I discuss the theories of social networks in health as a mechanism between parent and child. I then highlight the findings from the data analysis. Finally, I examine the policy implications of this body of work and limitations, as well as future research directions.