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Health Insurance and Marriage Behavior: Will Marriage Lock Hold Under Healthcare Reform?

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  • Tianxu Chen

    (University of Connecticut)

Abstract

Spousal healthcare coverage can potentially cause “marriage lock” in which couples stay married for the sake of health insurance benefits. However, the “marriage lock” effect may change under healthcare reforms. In this paper, I examine the impact of the 2006 Massachusetts healthcare reform on marriage and divorce decisions. I hypothesis that the individual mandate make people stay/get married to get health insurance, while the exchange markets will the reduce people’s reliance on marriage to get health insurance. Using American Community Survey data, I find that the 2006 healthcare reform increased incentives for marriage in Massachusetts relative to neighboring states. Specifically, the reform appears to have reduced the divorce rate by 0.5 percentage point and increased the marriage rate by 1.4 percentage points. These findings provide evidence that the “marriage lock” effect exists and it changes under healthcare reforms.

Suggested Citation

  • Tianxu Chen, 2019. "Health Insurance and Marriage Behavior: Will Marriage Lock Hold Under Healthcare Reform?," Working papers 2019-10, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:uct:uconnp:2019-10
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. David J. G. Slusky & Donna K. Ginther, 2021. "Did Medicaid expansion reduce medical divorce?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1139-1174, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Marriage Lock; Health Care Reform; Health Insurance Exchanges; Employer Sponsored Health Insurance; Marriage Behavior;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J - Labor and Demographic Economics
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior

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