A BEJEAP Advances article.

Abstract

Despite considerable research, there is little consensus about the impact of Medicaid eligibility expansions for low-income children. In this paper, I reexamine the expansions’ impact on Medicaid take-up and private insurance “crowd-out” by investigating a number of critiques leveled at the seminal work of Cutler and Gruber (1996) and extending the analysis to include further expansions of Medicaid. I find that accounting for most critiques of Cutler and Gruber does not substantively affect their estimates of sizable take-up and crowd-out. However, controlling for age-specific time trends does substantially reduce the estimated take-up and crowd-out and recovers results close to those found elsewhere in the literature. I also find that later expansions generated much lower rates of take-up and crowding out.

Submitted: May 15, 2008 · Accepted: July 10, 2008 · Published: July 19, 2008

Recommended Citation

Shore-Sheppard, Lara D. (2008) "Stemming the Tide? The Effect of Expanding Medicaid Eligibility On Health Insurance Coverage," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy: Vol. 8 : Iss. 2 (Advances), Article 6.
DOI: 10.2202/1935-1682.2022
Available at: http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol8/iss2/art6