Old Social Obstacles Undermine Teen Moms' New Chance
New Chance, one of the nation's most intensive and better-funded programs for teen moms, found that enrollees were no more likely to become self-sufficient than young mothers who had not received its extensive services.
The study results, released by New York-based Manpower Research and Demonstration Corp., has powerful implications for social policy specialists, youth healthcare counseling programs, and welfare reform. Three-and-a-half years after entering the program, the study revealed that 75 percent of the young women were receiving public assistance and the same percentage became pregnant again.
New Chance studied the progress of 2,079 teenage mothers who were given numerous courses in education, training, child care, parenting classes, healthcare and counseling. Key observations:
- The program helped many young mothers but failed to prevent many of them from returning to troubled environments, according to Meri Maben, who runs a New Chance program in San Jose, Calif.
- Social policy experts predict that the study's finding are likely to lead to increased sanctions against social teen mother programs.
- The program seemed to increase the likelihood that teenagers would suffer from depression perhaps because it promoted unrealistic societal expectations. (Manpower, 212/532-3200)
Managed Care Gets Image Boost From New Study
Marketers of managed care plans can be encouraged by the recent findings of a study sponsored by the American Association of Health Plans (AAHP), based in Seattle, that reported between three and five million more people received health insurance in 1996 than would have without managed care health plans.
Attributing the increased access to the lower costs of managed care, some employers would not have been able to afford private insurance, according to the "Managed Care Savings for Employers and Households: 1990 through 2,000" study. Key findings:
- Managed care growth trends have influenced a rate increase slowdown in private health insurance costs: In the late '80s and early '90s, annual increases averaged 10 percent; and increases in health insurance costs per covered worker declined steadily from almost 11 percent in 1992 to.5 percent in 1996.
- Working families are paying less in premiums and out-of-pocket costs under managed care. Without managed care, average health spending in 1996 would have been higher by $406 per family/per year on the high end and $304 per family/per year on the low end. (AAHP, 206/505-7326)