The Effect of Health Insurance on Emergency Department Visits: Evidence from an Age-Based Eligibility Threshold
Published Web Location
https://are.berkeley.edu/~mlanderson/pdf/Anderson%20Dobkin%20Gross%202012a.pdfAbstract
Health insurance affects the rate at which individuals visit hospitals and emergency departments (EDs). We identify the causal effect of losing health insurance using a regression discontinuity design. We compare individuals just before and after their twenty third birthday, which insurers have used as a cutoff after which students are no longer eligible for their parents' health insurance: 1.5% of young adults lose their health insurance upon turning 23, and this transition leads to a 1.6% decrease in ED visits and a 0.8% decrease in hospital stays. We discuss why these estimates are larger than those observed among teenage populations. © 2014 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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