Type of Health Insurance Coverage Plays a Key Role in Mitigating Adverse Workforce Outcomes
New research from Indiana University has explored the effect of child disability, health insurance coverage, and the workforce outcomes of caregivers, shedding light on the complex interplay between these variables. The study reveals that caregivers of children with intellectual disabilities and autism (ID/ASD) experience significantly greater workforce absence and unemployment rates compared to caregivers of children without ID/ASD. This relationship is further moderated by health insurance coverage, with private insurance providing relieving effects, making workforce outcomes statistically equal to caregivers of children without ID/ASD with the same level of insurance. However, caregivers of children with ID/ASD covered by public insurance face disproportionately steeper odds of workforce absence and unemployment. The authors discovered that uninsured caregivers of children with ID/ASD experience even higher odds of unemployment. Ultimately, this research underscores the challenges parent caregivers face in the U.S. labor market, particularly women who are predominantly represented in the role of parental caregiver. The study emphasizes the importance of health insurance programs in supporting workforce engagement for families with children with disabilities. These findings have policy implications, suggesting additional family support to enable full workforce engagement for caregivers accessing public health insurance programs.
