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The Effects of the Massachusetts Health Reform on Household Financial Distress

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  • Bhashkar Mazumder
  • Sarah Miller

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the effect of a major health care reform in Massachusetts on a broad set of financial outcomes using credit report data. We exploit variation in the impact of the reform across counties and age groups using pre-reform insurance coverage as a measure of the potential effect of the reform. We find that the reform reduced the amount of debt that was past due, improved credit scores, reduced personal bankruptcies and reduced third-party collections. Our results show that health care reform has implications that extend well beyond the health of those who gain insurance coverage.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhashkar Mazumder & Sarah Miller, 2016. "The Effects of the Massachusetts Health Reform on Household Financial Distress," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 8(3), pages 284-313, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:8:y:2016:i:3:p:284-313
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.20150045
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    2. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    3. Conley, T. G., 1999. "GMM estimation with cross sectional dependence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 1-45, September.
    4. Daniel G. Sullivan, 2001. "A note on the estimation of linear regression models with Heteroskedastic measurement errors," Working Paper Series WP-01-23, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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