Public Insurance and Mortality: Evidence from Medicaid Implementation

Andrew Goodman-Bacon

Journal of Political Economy, 2018, vol. 126, issue 1, 216 - 262

Abstract: This paper provides new evidence that Medicaid's introduction reduced infant and child mortality in the 1960s and 1970s. Mandated coverage of all cash welfare recipients induced substantial cross-state variation in the share of children immediately eligible for the program. Before Medicaid, higher- and lower-eligibility states had similar infant and child mortality trends. After Medicaid, public insurance utilization increased and mortality fell more rapidly among children and infants in high-Medicaid-eligibility states. Mortality among nonwhite children on Medicaid fell by 20 percent, leading to a reduction in aggregate nonwhite child mortality rates of 11 percent.

Date: 2018
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