The middle panel of the table estimates the regression using a different dependent
variable, namely an indicator of whether the person has any type of health insurance
coverage. To the extent that the Medicaid cutbacks generate a larger pool of uninsured
non-citizens, one would expect the relevant coefficient in the vector θ to be negative
and significant. However, this coefficient is positive. In particular, it takes on a value
of 0.024 (0.021) in the sample of all persons, and 0.022 (0.031) in the sample of children.
In other words, there is no evidence that the welfare cutbacks significantly reduced
the aggregate health insurance coverage rate in the targeted group of non-citizens. In
contrast, the health insurance coverage rate actually increased in the states that were
the least generous and did not attempt to attenuate the presumed adverse impacts of
PRWORA