Health insurance coverage is no exception, says Sarah Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. Childhood access to health insurance improves health and economic outcomes later in life. Miller herself has found that that the children of early childhood Medicaid recipients were healthier than comparable peers.

“There can be a long shadow to these policies that can echo through generations,” Miller says. “A lot of the time, when policymakers think about these effects, they’re just thinking about the costs today, but the costs can persist for a long time.”

More about Sarah Miller comments on the U.S. Census Bureau report that found that the percentage of Americans without health insurance jumped. >