An Empirical Evaluation On The Effectiveness Of Medicaid Expansion Across 49 States

TL;DR

This study empirically evaluates the impact of Medicaid expansion under the ACA across 49 states from 2013 to 2016, finding no significant effects on health outcomes in expanding states.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous empirical analysis using Difference-in-Difference regressions to assess Medicaid expansion's causal effects on health outcomes.

Findings

No significant health outcome improvements in expansion states

Medicaid expansion did not significantly affect health metrics during 2013-2016

Results suggest limited short-term health benefits from expansion

Abstract

In 2014 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced the expansion of Medicaid where states can opt to expand the eligibility for those in need of free health insurance. In this paper, we attempt to assess the effectiveness of Medicaid expansion on health outcomes of state populations using Difference-in-Difference (DD) regressions to seek for causal impacts of expanding Medicaid on health outcomes in 49 states. We find that in the time frame of 2013 to 2016, Medicaid expansion seems to have had no significant impact on the health outcomes of states that have chosen to expand.