Author: Aizer, Anna ; Grogger, Jeffrey
Working Paper: Parental Medicaid Expansions and Health Insurance Coverage (PDF) ; June 2003
Abstract:
During the 1990s many states extended Medicaid
eligibility to low-income parents who were not receiving
welfare. We evaluate the effects of those expansions
on health insurance coverage. To account for unobservable
differences between expansion states and non-expansion
states that may be correlated with both policy decisions
and insurance coverage, we employ a within-state difference-in-difference
technique that makes use of data only from expansion
states. We find that the parental eligibility expansions
increased Medicaid coverage of mothers with only small
effects on private coverage. The expansions also increased
the coverage of children, presumably by raising the
benefit to the family of applying for coverage. We
find substantial racial and ethnic differences in the
effects of the expansions. As a result, the expansions
help reduce racial and ethnic gaps in insurance coverage,
particularly for adults. |
