Full Citation
Title: The Expansion of Dependent Coverage under the Affordable Care Act and Insurance Patterns of Young Adults
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2014
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Abstract: I study the health insurance implications of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provision that allows dependents to remain on parental insurance policies until age 26 using data from the IPUMS March Current Population Survey (CPS) and National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Within a difference-in-difference framework I compare changes in insurance for young adults affected by the law, those aged 22-25, to those who are older, aged 26-29, before and after the law. I find that the ACA increased insurance rates for those 22-25 by 2.7 percentage points in the CPS and 6.5 percentage points in the NHIS. Both data sets show, however, that there is a great deal of crowd-out in that a sizeable number of young adults dropped their own coverage and became insured through their parents. There is also some evidence of slight reductions in Medicaid and in whether insurance was offered through the workplace, offsetting effects worth exploring further.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Sullivan, Susan
Publisher: University of Notre Dame
Data Collections: IPUMS CPS, IPUMS Health Surveys - NHIS
Topics: Health, Population Health and Health Systems
Countries: United States