IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/soecon/v83y2016i1p25-44.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of the ACA's Extension of Coverage to Dependents on Young Adults’ Access to Care and Prescription Drugs

Author

Listed:
  • Catalina Amuedo‐Dorantes
  • Mehmet E. Yaya

Abstract

We examine the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)'s extension of coverage to dependents on young adults’ access to care as captured by their likelihood of delaying needed medical care or forgoing prescription drugs. Using data from the 2002 through 2013 waves of the National Health Interview Survey, we find that the federal mandate has not only significantly lowered their likelihood of being uninsured, but also significantly reduced their likelihood of delaying needed medical care or forgoing prescription drugs by 13% and by 31%, respectively. Because these early impacts might still underestimate the long‐run effect of greater health insurance coverage on health care utilization, the findings hint on the success of the ACA's expansion of dependent coverage to young adults in improving their access to health care.

Suggested Citation

  • Catalina Amuedo‐Dorantes & Mehmet E. Yaya, 2016. "The Impact of the ACA's Extension of Coverage to Dependents on Young Adults’ Access to Care and Prescription Drugs," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(1), pages 25-44, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:83:y:2016:i:1:p:25-44
    DOI: 10.1002/soej.12125
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12125
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/soej.12125?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kolstad, Jonathan T. & Kowalski, Amanda E., 2012. "The impact of health care reform on hospital and preventive care: Evidence from Massachusetts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 909-929.
    2. Amy Finkelstein & Sarah Taubman & Bill Wright & Mira Bernstein & Jonathan Gruber & Joseph P. Newhouse & Heidi Allen & Katherine Baicker, 2012. "The Oregon Health Insurance Experiment: Evidence from the First Year," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(3), pages 1057-1106.
    3. Charles J. Courtemanche & Daniela Zapata, 2014. "Does Universal Coverage Improve Health? The Massachusetts Experience," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 36-69, January.
    4. Yaa Akosa Antwi & Asako S. Moriya & Kosali Simon, 2013. "Effects of Federal Policy to Insure Young Adults: Evidence from the 2010 Affordable Care Act's Dependent-Coverage Mandate," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 1-28, November.
    5. Phillip B. Levine & Robin McKnight & Samantha Heep, 2011. "How Effective Are Public Policies to Increase Health Insurance Coverage among Young Adults?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 129-156, February.
    6. Kowalski, A. & Kolstad, J., 2010. "The Impact of an Individual Health Insurance Mandate on Hospital and Preventive Care: Evidence from Massachusetts," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 10/18, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barbaresco, Silvia & Courtemanche, Charles J. & Qi, Yanling, 2015. "Impacts of the Affordable Care Act dependent coverage provision on health-related outcomes of young adults," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 54-68.
    2. Yörük Barış K., 2017. "Health Insurance Coverage and Risky Health Behaviors among Young Adults," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 17(3), pages 1-21, July.
    3. Serakos Maria & Wolfe Barbara, 2016. "The ACA: Impacts on Health, Access, and Employment," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 201-259, December.
    4. Craig Garthwaite & Tal Gross & Matthew J. Notowidigdo, 2014. "Public Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Employment Lock," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(2), pages 653-696.
    5. Charles Courtemanche & James Marton & Benjamin Ukert & Aaron Yelowitz & Daniela Zapata, 2018. "Early Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Care Access, Risky Health Behaviors, and Self‐Assessed Health," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(3), pages 660-691, January.
    6. Bradley Heim & Ithai Lurie & Kosali Simon, 2015. "The Impact of the Affordable Care Act Young Adult Provision on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from Tax Data," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 133-157.
    7. Dolores De la Mata & Carlos Felipe Gaviria, 2015. "Losing Health Insurance When Young: Impacts on Usage of Medical Services and Health," CINCH Working Paper Series 1508, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Competent in Competition and Health, revised Aug 2015.
    8. Akosa Antwi, Yaa & Moriya, Asako S. & Simon, Kosali I., 2015. "Access to health insurance and the use of inpatient medical care: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act young adult mandate," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 171-187.
    9. Charles Courtemanche & James Marton & Benjamin Ukert & Aaron Yelowitz & Daniela Zapata, 2019. "Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Behaviors After 3 Years," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 7-33, January.
    10. Courtemanche, Charles & Marton, James & Ukert, Benjamin & Yelowitz, Aaron & Zapata, Daniela, 2018. "Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Behaviors after Three Years," IZA Discussion Papers 11468, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Gaviria Garcés, Carlos Felipe & De la Mata, Dolores, 2016. "Losing health insurance when young: Impacts on usage of medical services and health in Colombia," Papeles en Salud 15113, Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social.
    12. David J G Slusky, 2017. "Significant Placebo Results in Difference-in-Differences Analysis: The Case of the ACA’s Parental Mandate," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 43(4), pages 580-603, September.
    13. Chad Cotti & Erik Nesson & Nathan Tefft, 2019. "Impacts of the ACA Medicaid expansion on health behaviors: Evidence from household panel data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(2), pages 219-244, February.
    14. Aparna Soni, 2020. "The effects of public health insurance on health behaviors: Evidence from the fifth year of Medicaid expansion," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(12), pages 1586-1605, December.
    15. Dillender, Marcus, 2015. "The effect of health insurance on workers’ compensation filing: Evidence from the affordable care act's age-based threshold for dependent coverage," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 204-228.
    16. Sebastian Tello Trillo & Ausmita Ghosh & Kosali Simon & Johanna Catherine Maclean, 2015. "Losing Medicaid: What happens to hospitalizations?," NBER Working Papers 21580, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. McInerney, Melissa & Meiselbach, Mark K., 2020. "Distributional Effects of Recent Health Insurance Expansions on Weight-Related Outcomes," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    18. repec:mrr:papers:wp341 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Yörük Barış K., 2018. "Health insurance coverage and health care utilization: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act’s dependent coverage mandate," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(2), pages 1-24, December.
    20. Seonghoon Kim & Kanghyock Koh, 2022. "Health insurance and subjective well‐being: Evidence from two healthcare reforms in the United States," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 233-249, January.
    21. Kolstad, Jonathan T. & Kowalski, Amanda E., 2012. "The impact of health care reform on hospital and preventive care: Evidence from Massachusetts," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 909-929.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:soecon:v:83:y:2016:i:1:p:25-44. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2325-8012 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.