LIFE AFTER WELFARE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES AND SMALL TOWNS: PLANNING FOR HEALTH INSURANCE

Abstract

This research explores how families coming off of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), the national cash welfare program, plan for their health insurance after their automatic benefits expire. Data were collected in focus groups in rural communities and small towns in Oregon. Respondents reported that topics related to health insurance or planning for health insurance are not components of any welfare-to work curriculum, nor are they part of routine conversations with caseworkers. Many respondents reported that we were the first ones to raise these issues with them. Consequently, they had done virtually no planning for when their transitional Medicaid expires despite their serious concerns about access to health care and their previous negative experiences with being uninsured.

Citation

Seccombe, K. and Lockwood, R. (2003), "LIFE AFTER WELFARE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES AND SMALL TOWNS: PLANNING FOR HEALTH INSURANCE", Jacobs Kronenfeld, J. (Ed.) Reorganizing Health Care Delivery Systems: Problems of Managed (Research in the Sociology of Health Care, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 195-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0275-4959(03)21011-5