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Transforming WIC: Policy Shifts and Impacts

Saturday, November 15, 3:30 to 5:00pm, Property: Hyatt Regency Seattle, Floor: 6th Floor, Room: 603 - Skagit

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is the third largest nutrition assistance program in the nation. WIC provides supplemental foods, nutrition education, breastfeeding support, and health care and social services referrals to over 6.5 million low-income women, infants, and children each month. Over the past decade, WIC state agencies have implemented policy changes that affect program operations. These changes stem from federal waivers that facilitated program participation during the COVID-19 pandemic and from a federal requirement that all WIC state agencies transition from paper vouchers to an electronic benefits transfer system for WIC benefit redemption. The papers in this panel evaluate these WIC policy changes from multidisciplinary perspectives, including public health, economics, and policy fields.


Using data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the USDA Electronic Benefits Transfer Detail Status Report, the first paper characterizes the administrative burdens of WIC state agency certification policies across the 50 United States and the District of Columbia from 2017 to 2023. The author finds heterogeneity in policy changes across states over time, with the majority of states reducing the administrative burdens of WIC certification.


The second paper examines the relationship between state agency adoption of the physical presence waiver and WIC benefit redemption using longitudinal WIC administrative records across four states. The author finds that use of the physical presence waiver was associated with a reduced amount of WIC foods redeemed among new enrollees.


Using a mixed methods approach and administrative data from Massachusetts WIC, the third paper examines the effect of the remote services waiver on the retention of children beyond infancy. The authors also examine the effect of the increased cash-value voucher benefit amount for WIC fruits and vegetables on redemption of fruits and vegetables. The authors find a significant increase in children ages 1-4 retained in WIC and an increase in fruits and vegetables redeemed.


The final paper examines the relation between rollout of electronic benefits transfer for WIC benefit redemption and participant recertification using administrative data from a mountain state.


WIC has the potential for tremendous reach, and advancing the program could have a population-level impact on maternal and child health. Collectively, these papers find that the effects of WIC state agency policy changes have implications for program recertification and retention, amount of overall benefits redeemed, and amount of fruits and vegetables redeemed. Sharing these findings with policymakers is critical, as many of the policy changes explored in these papers are not yet permanent. Evidence from these papers brings us closer to identifying policy solutions that build trust in this public program to continue to support the short and long-term health of low-income women, infants, and children across the United States.

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