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

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • David Card

    (University of California at Berkeley)

  • Lara D. Shore-Sheppard

    (Williams College)

Abstract

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. © 2004 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/0034653041811798
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Article provided by MIT Press in its journal Review of Economics and Statistics.

Volume (Year): 86 (2004)
Issue (Month): 3 (August)
Pages: 752-766

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Handle: RePEc:tpr:restat:v:86:y:2004:i:3:p:752-766
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/

Order Information: Web: http://mitpress.mit.edu/journal-home.tcl?issn=00346535

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
  • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Janet Currie & Jonathan Gruber, 1996. "Health Insurance Eligibility, Utilization of Medical Care, and Child Health," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 111(2), pages 431-466.
  2. Angrist, Joshua D. & Krueger, Alan B., 1999. "Empirical strategies in labor economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 23, pages 1277-1366 Elsevier.
  3. Pischke, Jorn-Steffen, 1995. "Individual Income, Incomplete Information, and Aggregate Consumption," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 805-840, July.
  4. John Ham & Lara Dawn Shore-Sheppard, 2000. "The Effect of Medicaid Expansions for Low-Income Children on Medicaid Participation and Insurance Coverage: Evidence from the SIPP," JCPR Working Papers 164, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
  5. Lara D. Shore-Sheppard, 2000. "The Effect of Expanding Medicaid Eligibility on the Distribution of Children's Health Insurance Coverage," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(1), pages 59-77, October.
  6. David Card & Lara Dawn Shore-Sheppard, 2001. "Using Discontinuous Eligibility Rules to Identify the Effects of the Federal Medicaid Expansions," JCPR Working Papers 248, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
  7. David M. Cutler & Jonathan Gruber, 1996. "Does Public Insurance Crowd out Private Insurance?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 111(2), pages 391-430.
  8. Blumberg, Linda J. & Dubay, Lisa & Norton, Stephen A., 2000. "Did the Medicaid expansions for children displace private insurance? An analysis using the SIPP," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 33-60, January.
  9. Lara Shore-Sheppard, 1996. "The Effects of Expanding Medicaid Eligibility on the Distribution of Children's Health Insurance Coverage," Working Papers 748, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
  10. Esel Y. Yazici & Robert Kaestner, 1998. "Medicaid Expansions and The Crowding Out of Private Health Insurance," NBER Working Papers 6527, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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