The Effect of Health Insurance on Health Care Spending in Young Adults

<a href="https://embed.stanford.edu/iframe/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpurl.stanford.edu%2Fgn710qr4592" class="su-underline">Show Content</a>

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.

Type of resource	text
Date created	May 2011

Author	Xiao, Elizabeth
Primary advisor	Bhattacharya, Jayanta
Degree granting institution	Stanford University, Department of Economics

Subject	Stanford Department of Economics
Subject	United States
Subject	young adults
Subject	health insurance
Subject	Medical Expenditures Panel Survey
Genre	Thesis

Related item	Title 2011 Award for Excellence in Honors Thesis Presentation
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/gn710qr4592

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: 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

Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses

Loading usage metrics...