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In this article, we explore how using imputed income data in the Survey of Income and Program Participation affects the observed relationship between household income volatility and food insufficiency. We find that measuring income volatility using imputed income data substantially understates the association between large drops in household income and food insufficiency. After excluding observations with imputed income, large drops in income are associated with a 2.1–percentage point increased probability of food insufficiency, or a 31% higher likelihood of food insufficiency.

Wisconsin's BadgerCare Plus (BC+) program was designed to ensure access to health insurance coverage to virtually all Wisconsin children and to bolster coverage for parents and other caretaker adults. The program, launched in February 2008, expanded upon BadgerCare (Wisconsin's Children's Health Insurance Program) and Medicaid. BC+ combines its predecessor programs into one streamlined umbrella program and its introduction was characterized by the following reforms: an eligibility expansion augmented with an autoenrollment initiative; simplification of eligibility rules and enrollment and verification processes; and an aggressive marketing and outreach campaign. This paper provides estimates of the impact of the reform effort on program enrollment and the continuity of coverage. We find that the introduction of BC+ was associated with increases in enrollment and decreases in exit rates, suggesting that the Wisconsin experience may be instructive for other states interested in achieving similar aims.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) relies heavily on the expansion of Medicaid eligibility to cover uninsured populations. In February 2008, Wisconsin expanded and reformed its Medicaid/CHIP program and, as part of program implementation, automatically enrolled a set of newly eligible parents and children. This process of “auto-enrollment” targeted newly eligible parents and older children whose children/siblings were already enrolled in the state's Medicaid/CHIP program. Auto-enrollment brought over 44,000 individuals into the program, representing more than 60% of all enrollees in the first month of the reformed program. Individuals who were auto-enrolled were modestly more likely to leave the program relative to other individuals who enrolled in February 2008, unless their incomes were high enough to be required to pay premiums; these auto-enrollees were much more likely to exit relative to other enrollees subject to premium payments. The higher exit rates exhibited by non-premium paying auto-enrollees were likely due to the fact that over 40% of auto-enrollees were covered by a private insurance policy in the month of their enrollment, compared to approximately 30% for regular enrollees. A national simulation of an auto-enrollment process similar to Wisconsin's, including the expansion of adult Medicaid eligibility to 133% of the federal poverty level under the ACA, suggests that 2.5 million of the 5.6 million newly eligible parents could be auto-enrolled, and approximately 25% of this population would be privately insured. These results suggest that auto-enrollment may be appropriate for other states, especially in their efforts to enroll eligible populations who are not subject to premium requirements.

The number of collisions and fatalities at rail-highway intersections has declined significantly over the past thirty years, despite considerable increases in the volume of both rail and highway traffic. This paper disaggregates the improvement into its constituent causes. Negative binomial regressions are conducted on a pooled data set for 49 states from 1975 to 2001. The analysis concludes that about two-fifths of the decrease is due to factors such as reduced drunk driving and improved emergency medical response that have improved safety on all parts of the highway network. The installation of gates and/or flashing lights accounts for about a fifth of the reduction. The development of the “Operation Lifesaver” campaign, that seeks to inform the public on appropriate conduct at crossings, in the 1970s and early 1980s; and the installation of “ditch lights” on locomotives in the mid 1990s, each led to about a seventh of the reduction. Finally, about a tenth is due to closure of crossings resulting from line abandonments or consolidation of little-used crossings.