Medicaid Expansion and the Unemployed

Thomas C. Buchmueller (), Helen Levy () and Robert Valletta
Additional contact information
Thomas C. Buchmueller: University of Michigan
Helen Levy: University of Michigan

No 12842, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We examine how a key provision of the Affordable Care Act – the expansion of Medicaid eligibility – affected health insurance coverage, access to care, and labor market transitions of unemployed workers. Comparing trends in states that implemented the Medicaid expansion to those that did not, we find that the ACA Medicaid expansion substantially increased insurance coverage and improved access to health care among unemployed workers. We then test whether this strengthening of the safety net affected transitions from unemployment to employment or out of the labor force. We find no meaningful statistical evidence in support of moral hazard effects that reduce job finding or labor force attachment.

Keywords: unemployment; access to care; insurance coverage; medicaid; labor force transitions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I13 I18 J64 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 104 pages
Date: 2019-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Journal of Labor Economics, 2021, 39 (S2), S575–S617

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp12842.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Medicaid Expansion and the Unemployed (2021)
Working Paper: Medicaid Expansion and the Unemployed (2019)
Working Paper: Medicaid Expansion and the Unemployed (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12842

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().