Childhood Medicaid Coverage and Later Life Health Care Utilization

Laura Wherry, Sarah Miller, Robert Kaestner and Bruce Meyer

No 20929, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Policy-makers have argued that providing public health insurance coverage to the uninsured lowers long-run costs by reducing the need for expensive hospitalizations and emergency department visits later in life. In this paper, we provide evidence for such a phenomenon by exploiting a legislated discontinuity in the cumulative number of years a child is eligible for Medicaid based on date of birth. We find that having more years of Medicaid eligibility in childhood is associated with fewer hospitalizations and emergency department visits in adulthood for blacks. Our effects are particularly pronounced for hospitalizations and emergency department visits related to chronic illnesses and those of patients living in low-income neighborhoods. Furthermore, we find evidence suggesting that these effects are larger in states where the difference in the number of Medicaid-eligible years across the cutoff birthdate is greater. Calculations suggest that lower rates of hospitalizations and emergency department visits during one year in adulthood offset between 3 and 5 percent of the initial costs of expanding Medicaid.

JEL-codes: I12 I13 I28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-02
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 (23)

Published as Laura R. Wherry & Sarah Miller & Robert Kaestner & Bruce D. Meyer, 2018. "Childhood Medicaid Coverage and Later-Life Health Care Utilization," The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol 100(2), pages 287-302.

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Journal Article: Childhood Medicaid Coverage and Later-Life Health Care Utilization (2018)
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