Using discontinuous eligibility rules to identify the effects of the federal medicaid expansions on low-income children

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Card, D; Shore-Sheppard, LD
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Williams College
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/0034653041811798
• 发表日期: 2004-08
• 页码: 752-766
• 关键词: health-insurance

摘要

Despite intensive scrutiny, the effects of Medicaid expansions on the health insurance status of low-income children remain controversial. We reexamine 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 crowdout of private insurance coverage.