Did the Dependent Coverage Mandate Reduce Crime?

Zachary Fone, Andrew Friedson, Brandy J. Lipton and Joseph J. Sabia

Journal of Law and Economics, 2023, vol. 66, issue 1, 143 - 182

Abstract: The Affordable Care Act’s dependent coverage mandate (DCM) induced approximately 2 million young adults to join parental employer-sponsored health insurance plans. This study is the first to explore the impact of the DCM on crime, a potentially important externality. Using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System, we find that the DCM induced a 2–5 percent reduction in property crime incidents involving young adult arrestees ages 22–25 relative to those ages 27–29. This finding is supported by supplemental analysis using data from the Uniform Crime Reports. An examination of the underlying mechanisms suggests that declines in large out-of-pocket expenditures for health care, increased educational attainment, and increases in cohabitation of parents and adult children may explain these declines in crime. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the DCM generated approximately $371–$512 million in annual social benefits from crime reduction among young adults.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/722461 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/722461 (text/html)
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:jlawec:doi:10.1086/722461

Access Statistics for this article

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