Giving Compass' Take:

• The 2004 to 2012 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) found that parents who have more than 12 years of education spend more on health care for their families than those who have less. 

• What are some underlying causes for this? How can medical professionals address these findings to improve the health care system when it comes to accessibility?

• Read about human services role in developing better health care systems.

Researchers examined the association between parental education and family health care spending in single-mother and two-parent families based on data from the 2004 to 2012 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).

The findings, which appear in the Southern Economic Journal, show that parental education beyond 12 years is associated with increases in family health care spending and decreases in specific health conditions and poor health status, including hypertension, diabetes, and asthma.

According to the researchers, higher parental education was associated with increased total health care spending on both children and parents, and was also associated with sizable increases on ambulatory care spending for both family types. The study also found that families headed by single mothers who had higher levels of education spent more for prescription drugs and dental care while two-parent families with more education spent more for dental care and mental health services.

The study’s findings support the “Grossman model of health demand,” in which health is a “good” that is inherited and increased by investments beyond the price of medical care, and depreciates over time as someone’s health naturally deteriorates over time.

Read the full article about health care in families by Caitlin Coyle at Futurity