MEDICAID AND THE LABOR SUPPLY OF SINGLE MOTHERS: IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM |
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| Authors: | R. Vincent Pohl |
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| Affiliation: | University of Georgia, U.S.A.I am grateful to Joe Altonji, Amanda Kowalski, Fabian Lange, and Costas Meghir for their support and advice. Priyanka Anand, Bj?rn Brügemann, Tom Buchmueller, Susan Busch, Constanca Esteves‐Sorenson, Jason Fletcher, Joseph Hotz, Lisa Kahn, Kory Kroft, Kosali Simon, Melissa Tartari, two anonymous referees, and seminar and conference participants at the Census RDC Annual Conference, CHESG, EIEF, ENSAE‐CREST, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, iHEA, McGill, Queen's, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Universite de Montreal, Washington University in St. Louis, Yale Health Policy Colloquium, and Yale Labor and Public Economics Workshop provided helpful comments. I am grateful to Sarah Hamersma for sharing Medicaid eligibility thresholds data. I thank Jonathan Fisher at the Census NYCRDC, Melissa Banzhaf at the Atlanta Census RDC, and Ray Kuntz at AHRQ for administrative help with the data. The research in this article was conducted at the New York and Atlanta Census Research Data Centers, and the support of AHRQ is acknowledged. The results and conclusions in this article are those of the author and do not indicate concurrence by AHRQ, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the U.S. Census Bureau. All results have been reviewed to ensure that no confidential information is disclosed. |
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| Abstract: | The Medicaid expansions and health insurance subsidies of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) change work incentives for single mothers. To evaluate the employment effects of these policies ex ante, I estimate a model of labor supply and health insurance choice exploiting variation in pre‐ACA Medicaid policies. Simulations show that single mothers increase their labor supply at the extensive and intensive margin by 12% and 7%, respectively, uninsurance rates decline by up to 40%, and an average family's welfare improves by 1,600 dollars per year. Health insurance subsidies and not Medicaid expansions mostly drive these effects. |
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