Affiliation:
1. Department of Operations and Decision Systems, Faculty of Administration Université Laval Quebec City Quebec Canada
2. Centre de recherche du CHU de Québec Université Laval Quebec City Quebec Canada
3. Vitam, Centre de recherche en santé durable Université Laval Quebec City Quebec Canada
Abstract
AbstractMedical expenses have been associated with a large proportion of consumer bankruptcies in the United States. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between the Medicaid expansion implemented in the context of the Affordable Care Act and consumer bankruptcy, overall and by chapter filing. We used a longitudinal study design with a study period of 2008–2017. We tested three approaches: difference‐in‐differences, fixed effect panel linear regression, and triple difference. We constructed a panel dataset from 2008 to 2017 with states’ data using data from various sources on insurance, bankruptcy filings, and characteristics that may affect bankruptcy, such as income and ethnicity. The outcomes were the annual rates of consumer bankruptcies overall and by chapter at the state level. Between 2008 and 2017, the overall unadjusted bankruptcy filing rate fell from 0.36% to 0.24%. We found that the expansion was associated with a decrease in overall consumer bankruptcy varying between 0.035 and 0.039 percentage points and that the intensity of the effect was modulated by the intensity of the treatment. Results were consistent across models and suggest that the Medicaid expansion had a significant negative effect on overall bankruptcy filings and specifically on Chapter 7 filings.
Subject
Economics and Econometrics