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What Do Longitudinal Data on Millions of Hospital Visits Tell us About The Value of Public Health Insurance as a Safety Net for the Young and Privately Insured?

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  • Amanda E. Kowalski

Abstract

Young people with private health insurance sometimes transition to the public health insurance safety net after they get sick, but popular sources of cross-sectional data obscure how frequently these transitions occur. We use longitudinal data on almost all hospital visits in New York from 1995 to 2011. We show that young privately insured individuals with diagnoses that require more hospital visits in subsequent years are more likely to transition to public insurance. If we ignore the longitudinal transitions in our data, we obscure over 80% of the value of public health insurance to the young and privately insured.

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  • Amanda E. Kowalski, 2015. "What Do Longitudinal Data on Millions of Hospital Visits Tell us About The Value of Public Health Insurance as a Safety Net for the Young and Privately Insured?," NBER Working Papers 20887, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20887
    Note: AG EH PE
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    Cited by:

    1. Flores, Gabriela & O’Donnell, Owen, 2016. "Catastrophic medical expenditure risk," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-15.
    2. Zelalem Yilma & Owen O’Donnell & Anagaw Mebratie & Getnet Alemu & Arjun S. Bedi, 2018. "Subjective Expectations of Medical Expenditures and Insurance in Rural Ethiopia," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Health Econometrics, volume 127, pages 23-55, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    3. Eric French & Elaine Kelly & Pieter Bakx & Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Doorslaer, 2016. "Spending on Health Care in the Netherlands: Not Going So Dutch," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 37, pages 593-625, September.
    4. Sven Neelsen & Supon Limwattananon & Owen O'Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer, 2015. "Economic Impact of Illness with Health Insurance but without Income Insurance," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 15-060/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    5. Owen (O.A.) O'Donnell, 2019. "Financial Protection Against Medical Expense," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-010/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    6. Brevoort, Kenneth & Grodzicki, Daniel & Hackmann, Martin B., 2020. "The credit consequences of unpaid medical bills," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    7. Lakdawalla, Darius & Malani, Anup & Reif, Julian, 2017. "The insurance value of medical innovation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 94-102.
    8. Kenneth Brevoort & Daniel Grodzicki & Martin B. Hackmann, 2017. "Medicaid and Financial Health," NBER Working Papers 24002, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    JEL classification:

    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private

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