The publication cites a recent paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
For the research, Princeton economists Diane Alexander and Janet Currie analyzed hospital billings from New Jersey, which gave a complete record of children who visited any ER between 2006 and 2012.
Researchers found that between similar children who show up at the same emergency room at the same time with flu symptoms, the child on public insurance was about 10 percent less likely to be hospitalized, according to the article. That number went down to 5 percent for other kinds of health problems such as asthma, dehydration and appendicitis.
No children were necessarily turned away, according to the article, but researchers said hospitals were more likely overall to set aside a bed for a child on private insurance.
However, there was a bright side to the research.
“Our results suggest that hospitals are more likely to admit children with private insurance than with public insurance when beds are scarce,” Ms. Alexander said in an email to The Washington Post. “However, we find no evidence that this differential treatment translates into differential health outcomes, which raises the possibility that overall admission rates may be too high.”
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