The Effect of Medicaid on Crime: Evidence from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment

Amy Finkelstein, Sarah Miller and Katherine Baicker

No 33244, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Those involved with the criminal justice system have disproportionately high rates of mental illness and substance-use disorders, prompting speculation that health insurance, by improving treatment of these conditions, could reduce crime. Using the 2008 Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, which randomly made some low-income adults eligible to apply for Medicaid, we find no statistically significant impact of Medicaid coverage on criminal charges or convictions. These null effects persist for high-risk subgroups, such as those with prior criminal cases and convictions or mental health conditions. In the full sample, our confidence intervals can rule out most quasi-experimental estimates of Medicaid’s crime-reducing impact.

JEL-codes: I10 I13 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-law and nep-ure
Note: EH PE
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