Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/161272 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 10649
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to achieve nearly universal health insurance coverage through a combination of mandates, subsidies, marketplaces, and Medicaid expansions, most of which took effect in 2014. We use data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to examine the impacts of the ACA on health care access, risky health behaviors, and self-assessed health after two years. We estimate difference-in-difference-in-differences models that exploit variation in treatment intensity from state participation in the Medicaid expansion and pre-ACA uninsured rates. Results suggest that the ACA led to sizeable improvements in access to health care in both Medicaid expansion and non-expansion states, with the gains being larger in expansion states along some dimensions. No statistically significant effects on risky behaviors or self-assessed health emerge for the full sample. However, we find some evidence that the ACA improved self-assessed health among older non-elderly adults, particularly in expansion states.
Subjects: 
Affordable Care Act
health insurance
Medicaid
health
obesity
smoking
drinking
JEL: 
I12
I13
I18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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