The War on Poverty's Experiment in Public Medicine: Community Health Centers and the Mortality of Older Americans

Martha Bailey and Andrew Goodman-Bacon

American Economic Review, 2015, vol. 105, issue 3, 1067-1104

Abstract: This paper uses the rollout of the first Community Health Centers (CHCs) to study the longer-term health effects of increasing access to primary care. Within ten years, CHCs are associated with a reduction in age-adjusted mortality rates of 2 percent among those 50 and older. The implied 7 to 13 percent decrease in one-year mortality risk among beneficiaries amounts to 20 to 40 percent of the 1966 poor/non-poor mortality gap for this age group. Large effects for those 65 and older suggest that increased access to primary care has longer-term benefits, even for populations with near universal health insurance. (JEL H75, I12, I13, I18, I32, I38, J14)

JEL-codes: H75 I12 I13 I18 I32 I38 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20120070
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (109)

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