UC San Diego

This dissertation looks at how public health programs and prescription drug insurance affect health and health- related behaviors and expenditures. The first chapter examines the effect of Medicaid prescription drug coverage on state-level mortality using the implementation period as a natural experiment. The second chapter looks at state -level changes in life expectancy from the 1970s to 2000s and explores the role of state prescription drug programs as a possible explanatory variable. The third chapter examines how health care expenditures change with prescription drug insurance status