The Effect of Health Insurance on Health Care Spending in Young Adults
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Nearly a quarter of young adults between the ages of 19 and 23 are uninsured, making them the demographic most vulnerable to being uninsured in the United States. Young adults experience a sharp drop in health insurance rates at the age of 19 when they “age out” of their parents’ insurance plans. Exploiting this fact, I use a regression-discontinuity framework to explore the effect of health insurance on health care spending and to circumvent the usual problems of endogeneity. With data from the Medical Expenditures Panel Survey from 1996 through 2008, I estimate a 7% drop in insurance rates at the age of 19. I find that men spend significantly less on health care after this drop, and women spend more. With the passing of the 2010 Health Care Bill, we can expect young adults to rapidly become more insured. This paper’s results may provide insight into the policy’s potential consequences on health care spending.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | May 2011 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Xiao, Elizabeth |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Bhattacharya, Jayanta |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Economics |
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford Department of Economics |
|---|---|
| Subject | United States |
| Subject | young adults |
| Subject | health insurance |
| Subject | Medical Expenditures Panel Survey |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
| Related item | |
|---|---|
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/gn710qr4592 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Xiao, Elizabeth. (2011). The Effect of Health Insurance on Health Care Spending in Young Adults. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/gn710qr4592
Collection
Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses
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