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Medicaid as an Investment in Children: What is the Long-Term Impact on Tax Receipts"

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Abstract

We use administrative data from the IRS to examine the long-term impact of childhood Medicaid expansions. We use eligibility variation by cohort and state that we can relate to outcomes graphically. We find that children with greater Medicaid eligibility paid more in cumulative taxes by age 28. They collected less in EITC payments, and the women had higher cumulative wages. Our estimates imply that the government will recoup 56 cents of each dollar spent on childhood Medicaid by the time these children reach age 60. This return does not include estimated private gains from increased college attendance and decreased mortality.

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  • David W. Brown & Amanda E. Kowalski & Ithai Z. Lurie, 2015. "Medicaid as an Investment in Children: What is the Long-Term Impact on Tax Receipts"," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1979, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:1979
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    File URL: https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/pub/d19/d1979.pdf
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    1. Ted Joyce & Andrew Racine, 2003. "Chip Shots: Association Between the State Children's Health Insurance Programs and Immunization Coverage and Delivery," NBER Working Papers 9831, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    5. Katherine Baicker & Amy Finkelstein & Jae Song & Sarah Taubman, 2013. "The Impact of Medicaid on Labor Force Activity and Program Participation: Evidence from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment," NBER Working Papers 19547, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Aaron S. Yelowitz, 1998. "Will Extending Medicaid to Two-Parent Families Encourage Marriage?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 33(4), pages 833-865.
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    8. David Card & Lara D. Shore-Sheppard, 2004. "Using Discontinuous Eligibility Rules to Identify the Effects of the Federal Medicaid Expansions on Low-Income Children," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(3), pages 752-766, August.
    9. Dhaval Dave & Sandra L. Decker & Robert Kaestner & Kosali I. Simon, 2015. "The Effect of Medicaid Expansions in the Late 1980s and Early 1990s on the Labor Supply of Pregnant Women," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(2), pages 165-193, Spring.
    10. Laura R. Wherry & Bruce D. Meyer, 2016. "Saving Teens: Using a Policy Discontinuity to Estimate the Effects of Medicaid Eligibility," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(3), pages 556-588.
    11. 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.
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    14. Ham, John C. & Shore-Sheppard, Lara, 2005. "The effect of Medicaid expansions for low-income children on Medicaid participation and private insurance coverage: evidence from the SIPP," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 57-83, January.
    15. Gruber, Jonathan & Simon, Kosali, 2008. "Crowd-out 10 years later: Have recent public insurance expansions crowded out private health insurance?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 201-217, March.
    16. Sarah Miller & Laura R. Wherry, 2019. "The Long-Term Effects of Early Life Medicaid Coverage," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 54(3), pages 785-824.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health insurance; Simulated instrument; Mortality; EITC;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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