Losing public health insurance: TennCare reform and personal financial distress

Laura M. Argys, Andrew Friedson, M. Melinda Pitts and Daniel Tello-Trillo

Journal of Public Economics, 2020, vol. 187, issue C

Abstract: A primary goal of health insurance is smoothing the financial risk associated with health shocks. We estimate the effect of exposure to health-insurance reform on individual-level financial well-being. Utilizing a plausibly exogenous shock to health insurance status resulting from a sudden disenrollment from Tennessee's Medicaid program in 2005, we find that the reform resulted in a 2.78 point decline in credit risk score for an individual in the median county in Tennessee. This study is the first examining the impact of losing any form of public assistance on personal financial well-being and our results inform ongoing discussions around Medicaid reform.

Keywords: Medicaid; Public assistance; Household finance; Debt; Bankruptcy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 H75 I13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:187:y:2020:i:c:s0047272720300669

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104202

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