Full Citation
Title: New Evidence on the Effects of Dependent Coverage Mandates
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2016
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Abstract: A large literature studies the effects of expanding insurance eligibility to young adult dependents, a major provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). I provide new evidence on the effects of dependent coverage mandates by compiling original legal data on the timing and content of initial state adoption of these laws during the 1980s and 1990s; most existing research leverages much smaller eligibility expansions during the 2000s. Using data from the 1996-2014 Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, the 1986-2014 Current Population Surveys, and the 2008-2014 American Community Surveys, I estimate the effects of state dependent mandates and estimate the effects of the PPACA dependent mandate with controls for pre-existing state mandates. I show that the effects of initial state adoptions during the 1990s had much larger and more robust effects on dependent coverage than the eligibility expansions of the 2000s studied in most prior work. I find that the likelihood of having insurance coverage increased by 6 percent under state mandates and by 8.2 percent under the PPACA mandate. The increase is driven by a large increase in private insurance: 7.5 percent under state mandates and 11.8 percent under the PPACA mandate. I find that state mandates had no effect on public insurance coverage but that the ACA mandate decreased the likelihood of public insurance coverage consistent with crowding in. I find hetereogenous effects by sex with males have larger coverage gains. Despite the gains in insurance, I find no effect on self-rated health. Looking at labor market outcomes, I find evidence of increased entrepreneurship, some evidence of a decrease in average weekly hours, mixed evidence of changes in unemployment duration, and no effect on labor force participation. Looking at education, I find an increased likelihood of having a bachelors degree and of taking some college courses. I further investigate how dependent mandates affect parents decisions and find that state dependent mandates have no effect on the heads of households labor supply or overall insurance coverage, though there is evidence that, among parents with employer sponsored insurance, those who have eligible children are more likely to switch to an employer sponsored family plan and this effect is much larger for households with only one parent present. Among employer sponsored insurance policyholders I find no evidence of shifting costs through decreased wages. However, I do find evidence that some employers reduce costs by no longer paying premiums on insurance plans.
Url: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/aarongamino/files/2016/10/gamino-jmp.pdf
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Authors: Gamino, Aaron
Publisher: Vanderbilt University
Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS CPS
Topics: Health
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