In this, the last installment of the Center for Medicaid Policy’s series of issue briefs looking at the intersection of Medicaid and social determinants, we explore the role of transportation as a social determinant of access, cost and outcomes. This brief will examine the current system of medically-based transportation, transportation as a public health concern and the role non-health related policy plays in affecting health.

Data compiled by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that in 2016, only 23 families for every 100 families in poverty received TANF cash assistance. When TANF was created in 1996, 68 families received cash assistance for every 100 in poverty. According to data from the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2016, only about nine out of 100 families receiving Ohio Works First (OWF) had income beyond cash assistance. A family of three has to make less than $10,390 a year to qualify for cash assistance. Declining caseloads in Ohio, and nationally, mean that fewer and fewer families can purchase essentials, like diapers or feminine hygiene products, because they no longer have access to cash support offered by OWF. Read more here.

The Ohio County Fact Sheets highlight demographic projections, educational attainment, employment, income, poverty, health coverage, Medicaid, health indicators and more in each of the 88 counties in the state of Ohio.