Using Discontinuous Eligibility Rules to Identify the Effects of the Federal Medicaid Expansions on Low Income Children

David Card and Lara Shore-Sheppard

No 2003-09, Department of Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics, Williams College

Abstract: Despite intensive scrutiny, the effects of Medicaid expansions on the health insurance status of low-income children remain controversial. We re-examine the effects of the two largest federally-mandated expansions which offered Medicaid coverage to low-income children in specific age ranges and birth cohorts. We use a regression discontinuity approach, comparing Medicaid enrollment, private insurance coverage, and overall insurance coverage on either side of the age limits of the laws. We conclude that the modest impacts of the expansions on health insurance coverage arose because of very low takeup rates of the newly available coverage, rather than from crowd-out of private insurance coverage.

JEL-codes: I18 I38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2003-12
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Published in Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 86, no. 3, August 2004, pp. 752-766.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Using Discontinuous Eligibility Rules to Identify the Effects of the Federal Medicaid Expansions on Low-Income Children (2004)
Working Paper: Using Discontinuous Eligibility Rules to Identify the Effects of the Federal Medicaid Expansions on Low Income Children (2002)
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