The Effect of Parental Immigration Authorization o

Authors: Andrea C Weathers Cynthia S Minkovitz Marie DienerWest Patricia O’Campo

Publish Date: 2008/01/10

Volume: 10, Issue: 3, Pages: 247-254

PDF Link

Abstract

Objective To examine if immigration authorization among parents is associated with health insurance coverage for migrant Latino children Data Source A crosssectional household survey of 300 migrant families for which one child aged 13 years was randomly selected Results Most children lacked insurance 73 and had unauthorized parents 77 Having an authorized parent or parental stay of more than 5 years in the US were each positively associated with children’s health insurance coverage OR 49 95 CI 27–87 and OR = 67 95 CI 38–120 respectively The effect of parental authorization did not persist in multivariable logistic regression analysis however more than 5 years of parental stay in the US remained associated with children’s insurance coverage OR = 48 95 CI 18–122 regardless of parental authorization Conclusion Increased parental familiarity with US health and/or social services agencies rather than parental authorization status is important to obtaining health insurance for migrant children Efforts to insure eligible migrant children should focus on recently arrived familiesWe very gratefully acknowledge the support of The Office of Research Demonstrations and Rural Health Development of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services I also am very grateful to and extend my sincerest thank you to my coauthors all of whom have generously and diligently provided input into the analysis and interpretation of these data and without whom these data would not have been successfully obtained

Keywords: