{"639106":{"#nid":"639106","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Medicaid Expansions Help Increase Child Support Payments, School of Public Policy Researcher Finds","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBy Michael Pearson\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EState Medicaid expansions under the Affordable Care\u0026nbsp;Act\u0026nbsp;help boost child support payments by improving the financial well-being of non-custodial parents,\u0026nbsp;according to a new study by a Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy researcher.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe increased access to the medical program for low-income people provided enough financial flexibility for non-custodial parents to increase overdue child support payments by 8.5%,\u0026nbsp;according to the study by Assistant Professor Lindsey Bullinger. She found evidence that the expansions also helped increase current child-support payments, but by a relatively smaller amount.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;These results show how social programs beyond traditional child support enforcement can help improve the financial well-being of custodial parents and their children,\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/bullinger\u0022\u003EBullinger\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;These results show how social programs beyond traditional child support enforcement can help improve the financial well-being of custodial parents and their children,\u0026rdquo; \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/bullinger\u0022\u003EBullinger\u003C\/a\u003E said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe study \u0026mdash; the first to examine the relationship between Medicaid expansions under the ACA and child support payments \u0026mdash; used state-level child support data from the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, as well as Census to examine the impact of Medicaid expansions on child care payments.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBullinger constructed a model that would allow her to examine whether expanding Medicaid had an impact on child support payments while controlling for factors such as race and ethnicity, employment status, and education.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EShe found that the likelihood of receiving child support payments increased in states that expanded Medicaid compared to those that did not. Overdue payments increased by 8.5%, while the amount paid on time went up by about 2%.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EBullinger\u0026rsquo;s paper, \u0026ldquo;Child Support and the Affordable Care Act\u0026rsquo;s Medicaid Expansions,\u0026rdquo; was published July 31 in the \u003Cem\u003EJournal of Policy Analysis and Management\u003C\/em\u003E. The article is available at \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/pam.22238\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Ehttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/pam.22238\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe paper is the latest work by Bullinger to examine the impact of public policy on family health and well-being.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EShe previously has written on innovative ways to reduce child maltreatment, the impact of adult opioid addiction on children, the effect of paid family leave on infant and parental health, among other topics.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EShe currently is working on understanding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on domestic violence and child abuse and neglect.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe School of Public Policy is a unit of the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe increased financial well-being created by access to health insurance under Medicaid\u0026nbsp;helped low-icome\u0026nbsp;parents who owed child support\u0026nbsp;meet their obligations, the research found.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Increased financial well-being helped parents meet their child support obligations, the research found."}],"uid":"34600","created_gmt":"2020-09-15 13:53:28","changed_gmt":"2020-09-15 13:54:04","author":"mpearson34","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-09-15T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2020-09-15T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"618472":{"id":"618472","type":"image","title":"Lindsey Bullinger","body":null,"created":"1551198284","gmt_created":"2019-02-26 16:24:44","changed":"1551198284","gmt_changed":"2019-02-26 16:24:44","alt":"A portrait photo of School of Public Policy assistant professor Lindsey Bullinger","file":{"fid":"235409","name":"lindsey_bullinger.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lindsey_bullinger.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lindsey_bullinger.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":16528,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/lindsey_bullinger.jpg?itok=zUDigRH0"}}},"media_ids":["618472"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1289","name":"School of Public Policy"}],"categories":[{"id":"151","name":"Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts"}],"keywords":[{"id":"167078","name":"School of Public Policy"},{"id":"170372","name":"Medicaid"},{"id":"185854","name":"ACA"},{"id":"78341","name":"Obamacare"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39511","name":"Public Service, Leadership, and Policy"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMichael Pearson\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nmichael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}