Title: Making the Case: The Cost to State and Local Governments of Teen Pregnancy and Teen Pregnancy Preven
1Making the CaseThe Cost to State and Local
Governments of Teen Pregnancy and Teen Pregnancy
Prevention
- Wilhelmina A. Leigh
- Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
- at
- NOAPPP Annual Conference
- November 10-13, 2003
- Arlington, VA
2Purpose of Workshop
- To enable program operators, advocates, and other
interested parties to better understand, use, and
(if desired) estimate the cost of the
consequences of teen pregnancy and the cost of
teen pregnancy prevention at state and local
levels
3Workshop Outline
- Costs incurred by states and localities as a
consequence of teen pregnancy - Costs to (or expenditures by) states and
localities to prevent teen pregnancy - Comparison of costs of consequences and of
prevention - Conclusion
4Cost of Teen Pregnancy - Outline Costs incurred
by states and localities as a consequence of teen
pregnancy ...
- Measures/Definitions
- Estimates
- Methodologies
- Related Issues
5Measures of Cost of Teen Pregnancy
- Single-year cost (and single-year cost saving)
- Single-birth cost (and single-birth cost saving)
- Single-cohort cost (and single-cohort cost
saving) - Economic cost
6Cost of Teen PregnancySingle-year cost of
teenage childbearing cost to the state or
local government (or to taxpayers) in a given
year to support all families (or households) that
were begun as the result of teen childbearing,
even those families in which the mother is no
longer in her teens
7Cost of Teen PregnancySingle-year cost saving
public expenditures that would not have been
required in a given year if all teen births that
created families (or households) that received
state or local government support that year had
been postponed until the mothers were at least
age 20
8Estimated Cost of Teen PregnancyExample
Baltimore, MD, fiscal year 1989 (Armstrong
Waszak 1990) -- Single-year cost 246.1
million
Single-year cost saving 98.4 million
9Cost of Teen PregnancySingle-birth cost of teen
childbearing cost to state or local government
over a period of 20 years to support a family (or
household) begun by a teen birth in any given year
10Cost of Teen PregnancySingle-birth cost saving
saving in state or local expenditures that
would have resulted over a 20-year period if each
of the teen births in the initial year of this
period had been postponed until the mother was at
least age 20
11Estimated Cost of Teen PregnancyExample
California,1985 - 2004 (Brindis Jeremy 1988) --
Single-birth cost 17,942Single-birth cost
saving 7,177
12Cost of Teen PregnancySingle-cohort cost of
teen childbearing ... cost to state or local
government over a period of 20 years to support
all families (or households) begun by births to
teenagers in any given year
13Cost of Teen PregnancySingle-cohort cost saving
... saving in state or local expenditures that
would have resulted over a 20-year period if all
of the teen births in the initial year of this
period had been postponed until the mothers were
at least 20 years of age
14Estimated Cost of Teen PregnancyExample
California, 1985 - 2004 (Brindis Jeremy 1988)
--Single-cohort cost 717.6
millionSingle-cohort cost saving 287 million
15Methodology for Estimating Cost of Teen
PregnancyAppropriate fraction(s) of the
expenditures in states or localities associated
with various government programs are the major
constituents of the estimates of single-year,
single-birth, and single-cohort costs (and cost
savings).
16Cost of Teen PregnancyGovernment program
expenditures most often included in cost
estimates of the consequences of teen pregnancy
- Welfare- Medicaid- Food Stamps
17Cost of Teen Pregnancy Government program
expenditures also made as a consequence of teen
pregnancy (but less frequently included in its
cost estimates) - Education- Juvenile
Justice- WIC - Homeless Assistance
18Cost of Teen Pregnancy Government program
expenditures also made as a consequence of teen
pregnancy (but less frequently included in its
cost estimates) (contd)- Child Welfare
(foster care)- Mental Health Services-
Substance Abuse Treatment- Child Support
Enforcement- Housing Assistance- Job Training
19Cost of Teen PregnancyEconomic Cost ...
- Also termed opportunity cost or indirect cost
- Includes public expenditures plus tax revenue
lost plus lost earnings - Can be calculated from several perspectives --
e.g., taxpayer, teen parents, and society
20Estimated Cost of Teen PregnancyExampleSouth
Carolina, fiscal year 1995 (Parker 1997)
--Single-year economic cost of teen pregnancy
1.5 billion
21Methodology for Estimating Cost of Teen
PregnancyConstituents of economic cost of TP
- Public assistance/government program expenditures
(as in single-year, single-birth, and
single-cohort cost estimates) - Estimates of lifetime earnings
- Estimates of sales taxes not paid
- Estimates of income taxes not paid
22Issues Related to Cost of Teen PregnancyMacro
Issues Affecting Teen Pregnancy Cost and Savings
Estimates
- Public-sector versus private-sector costs
- Difference between costs of pregnancy and of
childbearing - Co-mingling of federal and state/local funds
- Availability of expenditure data for government
programs
23Issues Related to Cost of Teen PregnancyMicro
Issues Affecting Teen Pregnancy Cost and Savings
Estimates
- Treatment of direct and administrative
expenditures in government programs - Estimating the appropriate share of program
beneficiary families (households) begun by teen
childbearing - Availability of data for various government
programs at desired units of geography
24Cost of Teen Pregnancy Prevention - Outline
Costs to (or expenditures by) states and
localities to prevent teen pregnancy ...
- Measures/Definitions
- Estimates/Methodologies
- Related Issues
25Measures of Cost of Teen Pregnancy Prevention
- Single-year cost of teen pregnancy prevention (or
single-year expenditures made to prevent teen
pregnancy) - Total annual spending and spending per female
teen to prevent teen pregnancy
26Measure of Cost of Teen Pregnancy
PreventionSingle-year cost of teen pregnancy
prevention (i.e., expenditures made to prevent
teen pregnancy in a single year) cost to those
who paid the federal and state/local taxes that
covered expenditures in a given year and in a
given jurisdiction to prevent teen births
27Estimated Cost of Teen Pregnancy
PreventionExample 17 Southern states (plus DC,
PR, and USVI), fiscal year 1995 (Kreutzer 1997)
-- Single-year cost of teen pregnancy
prevention 122 million
28Estimated Cost of Teen Pregnancy PreventionTotal
of Federal and State Funds Per State for TP
Prevention --
- Georgia - FY 1998 - 15.02 million (US GAO 1998)
- Illinois - FY 1997 - 18.2 million (US GAO 1998)
- Vermont - FY 1997 - 627,015 (US GAO 1998)
- WDC - FY 2002 - 6 million (DCCTPTP 2002)
29Estimated Cost of Teen Pregnancy Prevention
State Spending Per Female Teen, 1997 (Wertheimer
Moore 1998) --
- Mississippi - 0
- Nebraska - 0
- Nevada - 0
- Hawaii - 5
- California - 78
- Median - 8
30Cost of Teen Pregnancy PreventionIssues
- Medical sector (both public and private) cost as
well as government cost - Co-mingling of federal and state/local funds
- Actual and permissible uses of block grants
- Identifying programs that prevent TP
- Availability of data for smaller geographic units
31Costs of Teen Pregnancy v. Expenditures to
Prevent TPData for 17 Southern states (plus DC,
PR, USVI), FY 1995 (Kreutzer 1997)
--Single-year cost of consequences of TP 14
billionSingle-year expenditures to prevent TP
122 million
32Conclusion
- Methodologies used to estimate the cost of the
consequences of TP and the cost of (or
expenditures on) TPP are similar. - Data underlying the estimates of these costs --
and, hence, the estimates -- may be imprecise. - However, the amount spent as a result of teen
pregnancy consistently is much greater than the
amount spent to prevent teen pregnancy.
33Contact InformationWilhelmina A. Leigh,
Ph.D.Senior Research AssociateJoint Center for
Political and Economic Studies1090 Vermont
Avenue, NWSuite 1100Washington, DC
20005-4928Phone 202-789-3529FAX
202-789-6390e-mail wleigh_at_jointcenter.orgweb
http//www.jointcenter.org