State Medicaid Expansions and Mortality, Revisited: A Cost-Benefit Analysis

Benjamin D. Sommers ()
Additional contact information
Benjamin D. Sommers: Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

American Journal of Health Economics, 2017, vol. 3, issue 3, 392-421

Abstract: Previous research found that Medicaid expansions in New York, Arizona, and Maine in the early 2000s reduced mortality. I revisit this question with improved data and methods, exploring distinct causes of death and presenting a cost-benefit analysis. Differences-in-differences analysis using a propensity score control group shows that all-cause mortality declined by 6 percent, with the most robust reductions for health-care amenable causes. HIV-related mortality (affected by the recent introduction of antiretrovirals) accounted for 20 percent of the effect. Mortality changes were closely linked to county-level coverage gains, with one life saved annually for every 239 to 316 adults gaining insurance. The results imply a cost per life saved ranging from $327,000 to $867,000 which compares favorably with most estimates of the value of a statistical life.

Keywords: Medicaid; health insurance; mortality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 I13 I18 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1162/AJHE_a_00080 (application/pdf)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
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:ucp:amjhec:v:3:y:2017:i:3:p:392-421

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in American Journal of Health Economics from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().