'Til insurance do us part: the effect of the affordable care act preexisting conditions provision on marriage

J Matthew Hampton () and Otto Lenhart ()
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J Matthew Hampton: department of Economics, University of Northern Iowa
Otto Lenhart: Department of Economics

No 1902, Working Papers from University of Strathclyde Business School, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of the 2014 Affordable Care Act pre-existing conditions provision on marriage. The policy was implemented to prevent insurers from denying insurance coverage to individuals with health conditions. We test whether the implementation of the provision led to decreases in marriage among affected adults. We add to earlier work on how marital behaviour is influenced by policy incentives and examine for the presence of "marriage lock", a situation in which individuals remain married primarily for insurance. Using data from 2009-2015 and difference-indifference models, we find that males with pre-existing conditions are 5.15 percentage points (6.4 percent) less likely to be married after the policy implementation. Effects are largest for men who had insurance coverage prior to the policy change from a source other than his own employer, suggesting that the inability to attain individual coverage and reliance on spousal insurance provided incentives to remain married.

Keywords: Affordable care act; preexisting condititions; health insurance; marriage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 I13 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2019-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ias
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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