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Are Mental Health Insurance Mandates Effective? Evidence from Suicides

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  • Jonathan Klick
  • Sara Markowitz

Abstract

Many states have passed laws mandating insurance companies to provide or offer some form of mental health benefits. These laws presumably lower the price of obtaining mental health services for many adults, and as a result, might improve health outcomes. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of mental health insurance mandates by examining the influence of mandates on adult suicides, which are strongly correlated with mental illness. Data on completed suicides in each state for the period 1981-2000 are analyzed. Ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares results show that mental health mandates are not effective in reducing suicide rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Klick & Sara Markowitz, 2003. "Are Mental Health Insurance Mandates Effective? Evidence from Suicides," NBER Working Papers 9994, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9994
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    Cited by:

    1. Cseh Attila, 2008. "Labor Market Consequences of State Mental Health Parity Mandates," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(2), pages 1-34, April.
    2. Lenisa V. Chang, 2016. "The Effect Of State Insurance Mandates On Infant Immunization Rates," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(3), pages 372-386, March.
    3. Ye, Jinqi & Peng, Bin, 2024. "The effects of state and federal mental health parity laws on working time in the US," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 685-700.
    4. Griffin Edwards, 2014. "Doing Their Duty: An Empirical Analysis of the Unintended Effect of Tarasoff v. Regents on Homicidal Activity," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(2), pages 321-348.
    5. Timothy Callaghan & Steven Sylvester, 2019. "Autism spectrum disorder, politics, and the generosity of insurance mandates in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(5), pages 1-22, May.
    6. Marianne Bitler, 2005. "Effects of Increased Access to Infertility Treatment on Infant and Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from Health Insurance Mandates," PPIC Working Papers 2005.06, Public Policy Institute of California.
    7. Christopher Ojeda, 2015. "Depression and Political Participation," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1226-1243, November.
    8. Yoon, Jangho, 2011. "Effect of increased private share of inpatient psychiatric resources on jail population growth: Evidence from the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(4), pages 447-455, February.
    9. Tomasz Piotr Wisniewski & Brendan John Lambe & Keshab Shrestha, 2020. "Do Stock Market Fluctuations Affect Suicide Rates?," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 43(4), pages 737-765, December.
    10. Matthew Lang, 2013. "The Impact Of Mental Health Insurance Laws On State Suicide Rates," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 73-88, January.
    11. Jian Sun & Nengliang Yao & Shoujun Lyu, 2021. "The association between Urban and Rural Resident Basic Medical Insurance and depressive symptoms among Chinese middle‐aged and older adults: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal ," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), September.
    12. Dhaval Dave & Swati Mukerjee, 2011. "Mental health parity legislation, cost‐sharing and substance‐abuse treatment admissions," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(2), pages 161-183, February.
    13. Ettner, Susan L. & M. Harwood, Jessica & Thalmayer, Amber & Ong, Michael K. & Xu, Haiyong & Bresolin, Michael J. & Wells, Kenneth B. & Tseng, Chi-Hong & Azocar, Francisca, 2016. "The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act evaluation study: Impact on specialty behavioral health utilization and expenditures among “carve-out” enrollees," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 131-143.
    14. Edwards, Griffin, 2013. "Tarasoff, duty to warn laws, and suicide," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-8.
    15. Andersen, Martin, 2015. "Heterogeneity and the effect of mental health parity mandates on the labor market," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 74-84.
    16. Mary K. Hamman & Kandice A. Kapinos, 2016. "Colorectal Cancer Screening and State Health Insurance Mandates," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 178-191, February.
    17. Ray, Shaswata & Husain, Zakir, 2019. "To be, or not to be: A study of suicides in India," MPRA Paper 93891, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Joe Chen & Yun Jeong Choi & Kohta Mori & Yasuyuki Sawada & Saki Sugano, 2012. "Socio‐Economic Studies On Suicide: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 271-306, April.
    19. Marianne Bitler, 2005. "Effects of Increased Access to Infertility Treatment on Infant and Child Health Outcomes: Evidence from Health Insurance Mandates," PPIC Working Papers 2005.06, Public Policy Institute of California.
    20. Monica Harber Carney, 2021. "The impact of mental health parity laws on birth outcomes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 748-765, April.
    21. Jinqi Ye, 2017. "The Effects of State and Federal Mental Health Parity Laws on Working Time," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 200, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    22. Solomon, Keisha T. & Dasgupta, Kabir, 2022. "State mental health insurance parity laws and college educational outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    23. Jonathan Klick & Thomas Stratmann, 2007. "Diabetes Treatments and Moral Hazard," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(3), pages 519-538.
    24. Li, Xiaoxue & Ye, Jinqi, 2017. "The spillover effects of health insurance benefit mandates on public insurance coverage: Evidence from veterans," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 45-60.
    25. Shen, Yichen & Noguchi, Haruko, 2021. "Impacts of anticancer drug parity laws on mortality rates," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).

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    JEL classification:

    • I0 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General
    • K0 - Law and Economics - - General

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