The Doctor Might See You Now: The Supply Side Effects of Public Health Insurance Expansions

Craig L. Garthwaite

No 17070, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In the United States, public health insurance programs cover over 90 million individuals. Changes in the scope of these programs, such as the Medicaid expansions under the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, may have large effects on physician behavior. This study finds that following the implementation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, physicians decreased the number of hours spent with patients, but increased their participation in the expanded program. Suggestive evidence is found that this decrease in hours was a result of shorter office visits. These findings are consistent with the predictions from a mixed-economy model of physician behavior with public and private payers and also provide evidence of crowd out resulting from the creation of SCHIP.

JEL-codes: H0 H4 I1 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ias
Note: CH EH PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published as Garthwaite, Craig. 2012. The Doctor Might See You Now: The Supply Side of Public Health Insurance Expansions. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy. 4(3): 190-217.

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