Finally, the bottom panel helps to resolve the puzzle of declining Medicaid participation
and stable (or increasing) health insurance coverage by showing how the state-funded assistance
programs influenced the probability that immigrants were covered by employersponsored
insurance. The coefficient for non-citizens in this regression is 0.101 (0.026)
in the sample of all persons, and 0.147 (0.049) in the sample of children.17 In other
words, immigrants who lived in states that did not provide generous assistance programs
to their immigrant populations after 1996 became substantially more likely to be covered
by employer-sponsored insurance. This increase in ESI helped to greatly attenuate the potential
adverse impact of the welfare cutbacks on the number of non-citizens who lack health insurance. In contrast, the probability that citizens are covered by ESI does not
strongly depend on the provision of state-funded assistance (the coefficient is negative, but
insignificant)