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WHAT INFORMATION IS NEEDED? 8 What Information Is Needed? Recent changes to social welfare programs have devolved substantial program responsibility to the states, ended an entitlement to cash assistance, and tied benefit receipt to work effort and other behaviors. Coupled with the on-going transformation of the health care system, the changes pose substantial new challenges to national household surveys to provide relevant data for program monitoring and assessment. Much of the workshop discussion focused on the new or revised information needs that result from the changes. Participants agreed that current federal data are inadequate for tracking social welfare programs, but they did not agree about the scope and magnitude of the changes that are needed to surveys. Some participants anticipated that, under the new legislation, welfare programs will differ substantially across and even within states, in which case it may be difficult for national surveys to provide accurate data even for such basic measures as program participation and benefits. Other workshop participants predicted that there would be more convergence among programs as states adopt provisions that appear to work well from other states, so that it will be easier for existing surveys to provide needed data. Whatever the ultimate outcome in terms of program differences among states, national household surveys will clearly need to change to accommodate new information needs. SURVEY MEASURES OF PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY, PARTICIPATION, AND BENEFITS Several national surveys track and evaluate the effects of participation in health and social welfare programs. Three major surveys for which the current content and design will require modification to serve these purposes adequately in the future are the March Income Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), and the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). A fourth survey, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), may also require modification to provide adequate data for monitoring health care programs. (Descriptions of these surveys are provided in Appendix C.) Although participants differed in their views as to how extensively these major surveys should be revised, most of them stressed that changes to the existing surveys should "do no harm" (Carlson, 1996)âthat is, to the extent possible, questionnaire content and other features should remain intact in order to facilitate time-series comparisons. Maintaining the consistency of the surveys is especially important because devolution will probably interrupt some administrative data time series.
