Distances and Travel Times from Census Tracts to Nearby Medicaid offices in the United States

Overview This dataset provides census tract–level measures of geographic accessibility to official state-operated Medicaid offices across the United States. It includes multi-modal travel time and distance estimates from census tract centroids to the nearest Medicaid office, along with tract-level demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The dataset was constructed to examine spatial inequalities in administrative access to Medicaid services and to support research on geographic barriers to public insurance enrollment. Data Sources Medicaid Office Locations Medicaid office locations were obtained from a publicly available national inventory of official state-operated Medicaid offices providing in-person enrollment assistance, identified between 2021 and 2022 and updated through late 2023 (Shafer et al., 2024; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2024.110068). Non-state-operated entities (e.g., private providers, FQHCs) were excluded to ensure coverage reflects official state administrative locations only. Census Tract Characteristics Neighborhood demographic and socioeconomic characteristics were drawn from the 2016–2020 American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, including but not limited to: Racial/ethnic composition Median household income (inflation-adjusted to 2020 USD) Poverty rate Unemployment rate Disability prevalence Foreign-born share Population aged 65+ Geospatial Data Census tract boundaries and centroid coordinates were derived from U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line shapefiles. All spatial data were standardized to the WGS84 coordinate reference system. Accessibility Measures Travel Time Estimation Physical accessibility was operationalized as the minimum modeled travel time from each census tract centroid to the nearest Medicaid office. Travel times for four travel modes (i.e., driving, walking, bicycling, and public transit) were estimated using the Google Maps Distance Matrix API. Estimates were restricted to off‑peak weekday hours (after 20:00 and before 06:00) to minimize variability from traffic congestion.数据集概述 本数据集提供了美国境内各州官方运营的医疗补助计划（Medicaid）办公室的地理可达性的普查街区级测度指标。数据集包含从各普查街区质心到最近的Medicaid办公室的多模式出行时长与距离估算结果，同时附带普查街区级别的人口统计与社会经济特征数据。 本数据集的构建旨在探究医疗补助计划服务行政准入中的空间不平等问题，并为公共保险参保的地理障碍相关研究提供支撑。 数据来源 医疗补助计划办公室位置数据 Medicaid办公室的位置数据来自2021至2022年间识别、并于2023年末更新的官方公开全国名录，该名录收录提供线下参保协助服务的各州官方运营Medicaid办公室（Shafer et al., 2024; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2024.110068）。为确保覆盖范围仅包含官方州级行政办公地点，本研究排除了非州运营主体（如私人医疗机构、社区健康中心（FQHC））的数据。 普查街区特征数据 街区人口统计与社会经济特征取自2016-2020年美国社区调查（American Community Survey, ACS）5年估算数据，涵盖但不限于以下指标： - 种族/族裔构成 - 家庭收入中位数（已按2020年美元计价进行通胀调整） - 贫困率 - 失业率 - 残疾患病率 - 外国出生人口占比 - 65岁及以上人口占比 地理空间数据 普查街区边界与质心坐标取自美国人口普查局的TIGER/Line形状文件（TIGER/Line shapefiles）。所有空间数据均统一采用WGS84坐标参考系（WGS84 coordinate reference system）。 可达性测度指标 出行时长估算 物理可达性被定义为从各普查街区质心到最近的Medicaid办公室的最小建模出行时长。四种出行模式（即驾车、步行、骑行与公共交通）的出行时长通过谷歌地图距离矩阵API（Google Maps Distance Matrix API）估算得到。为最小化交通拥堵带来的变异性，估算时段限定为工作日非高峰时段（20:00之后至06:00之前）。