Saying, “I Don’t”: The Effect of the Affordable Care Act Young Adult Provision on Marriage

Abramowitz, Joelle

doi:10.3368/jhr.51.4.0914-6643r2

Cited by 44 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Additionally, we find a significant increase in coverage outside the home of 1.3 percentage points (p < 0.05). Since our measure of dependent coverage includes both parental and spousal coverage, we note that we also estimate a small, but statistically significant, reduction in spousal dependent coverage (p < 0.05), which is consistent with some individuals trading off spousal for parental coverage (Abramowitz, 2016;Barkowski and McLaughlin, 2018). This spousal coverage estimate also suggests our results are not subject to the critique levied by Burgdorf (2014Burgdorf ( , 2015 against Monheit et al (2011), that their model found effects through spousal coverage, not parental, a result inconsistent with the policy's legal mechanism.…”

supporting

confidence: 61%

“…This a key difference between our analysis and that of other authors (aside from Depew 2015 andTrudeau andConway 2018 11 ) who all use student or marital statuses (or both) as part of their imputation methods. We avoid using these since Depew (2015) argued they are potentially endogenous, an argument that was given empirical credence by previous work on marriage by Abramowitz (2016) and Barkowski and McLaughlin (2018). The disadvantage of this approach is that some individuals will be misclassified in our analysis, implying some attenuation in our estimates.…”

Section: Effects Of State Mandatesmentioning

confidence: 96%

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A Reevaluation of the Effects of State and Federal Dependent Coverage Mandates on Health Insurance Coverage

2018

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State governments have been passing laws mandating insurers to allow young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance plans past the age of 19 since the 1970s. These laws were intended to increase coverage, but research has been inconclusive on whether they were successful. We reconsider the issue with an improved approach featuring three key elements: a new, accurate dataset on state mandates; recognition that effects could differ greatly by age due to take up rate differences; and avoidance of endogenous characteristics when identifying mandate eligible young adults. We find the impact of the state mandates was concentrated among the 19 to 22 age group, for which dependent coverage increased sharply by about 6 percentage points. Overall coverage increased by almost 3 percentage points, with the difference explained by crowd out of public insurance. Crowd out of coverage through young adults own jobs was negligible. For those above age 22, we find little evidence of changes in coverage. We incorporate these insights into analysis of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) dependent coverage mandate, showing its effects were focused among those whom were previously ineligible for state mandates, or were eligible but older than 22. We argue the ACA's impact was broader because it had fewer eligibility conditions that implied parental dependence; young adults could be on their parents' insurance but still be relatively independent.

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supporting

confidence: 61%

Section: Effects Of State Mandatesmentioning

confidence: 96%

A Reevaluation of the Effects of State and Federal Dependent Coverage Mandates on Health Insurance Coverage

2018

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“…The magnitude of our findings is comparable with previous estimates of the effects of insurance access and changes in policy on marriage behavior. Abramowitz () finds that the dependent coverage mandate decreased marriage rates by 8.8 to 9.3 percent among young adults, and Chen () estimates a 7 percent increase in the number of divorces among individuals with spousal insurance coverage upon achieving Medicare eligibility at age 65.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Abramowitz () notes that the benefit of obtaining insurance coverage through marriage could impact both coupled and single individuals. For single individuals, an available spousal plan may induce individuals to marry because insurance makes marriage more attractive.…”

Section: Marriage and Health Insurance Coveragementioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of the Affordable Care Act preexisting conditions provision on marriage

Hampton

Lenhart

2019

Health Economics

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This paper investigates the effect of the Affordable Care Act preexisting conditions provision on marriage. The policy was implemented to prevent insurers from denying insurance coverage to individuals with preexisting health conditions. We test whether the implementation of the provision led to decreases in marriage among affected adults. We add to earlier work on how marital behavior is influenced by spousal health insurance and examine for the presence of “marriage lock,” a situation in which individuals remain married primarily for insurance. Using longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 2009 to 2017 and estimating difference‐in‐differences models, we find that male household heads with preexisting conditions are 7.12 percentage points (8.9 percent) less likely to be married after the policy. Using information on insurance status prior to the policy change, we find significant reductions in marriage among individuals with preexisting conditions who were previously insured by spousal health insurance plans. The findings suggest that the inability to attain individual coverage and reliance on spousal insurance provided incentives to remain married before 2014.

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“…However, Heim et al (2015) find no evidence of an education effect using IRS administrative tax records. One source of consistency in the literature is that females under age 26 are less likely to marry as a result of the legislation (Depew 2013; Abramowitz 2015). 14…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ACA: Impacts on Health, Access, and Employment

Serakos

Wolfe

2016

Forum for Health Economics and Policy

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On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. This comprehensive health care reform legislation sought to expand health care coverage to millions of Americans, control health care costs, and improve the overall quality of the health care system. The ACA required that all US citizens and legal residents have qualifying health insurance by 2014. In this paper we give readers a brief overview of the effects of the ACA based on recent research. We then turn our attention to the possibility of using the ACA expansion to answer important underlying questions, such as: To what extent does the holding of insurance lead to improvements in access to care? To what extent does the holding of coverage lead to improvements in health? In mental health? Are there likely general equilibrium effects on labor force participation, hours worked, employment setting, and indeed even the probability of marrying? By necessity, researchers’ ability to answer these questions depends on the availability of data, so we discuss current and potential data sources relevant for answering these questions. We also look to what has been studied about the health reform in Massachusetts and early Medicaid expansions to speculate what we can expect to learn about the effects of the ACA on these outcomes in the future.

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Saying, “I Don’t”: The Effect of the Affordable Care Act Young Adult Provision on Marriage

Cited by 44 publications

References 27 publications

A Reevaluation of the Effects of State and Federal Dependent Coverage Mandates on Health Insurance Coverage

A Reevaluation of the Effects of State and Federal Dependent Coverage Mandates on Health Insurance Coverage

The effect of the Affordable Care Act preexisting conditions provision on marriage

The ACA: Impacts on Health, Access, and Employment

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