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- Title
Reducing Young Adults' Health Care Spending through the ACA Expansion of Dependent Coverage.
- Authors
Chen, Jie; Vargas‐Bustamante, Arturo; Novak, Priscilla; Vargas-Bustamante, Arturo
- Abstract
<bold>Objective: </bold>To estimate health care expenditure trends among young adults ages 19-25 before and after the 2010 implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provision that extended eligibility for dependent private health insurance coverage.<bold>Data Sources: </bold>Nationally representative Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data from 2008 to 2012.<bold>Study Design: </bold>We conducted repeated cross-sectional analyses and employed a difference-in-differences quantile regression model to estimate health care expenditure trends among young adults ages 19-25 (the treatment group) and ages 27-29 (the control group).<bold>Principal Findings: </bold>Our results show that the treatment group had 14 percent lower overall health care expenditures and 21 percent lower out-of-pocket payments compared with the control group in 2011-2012. The overall reduction in health care expenditures among young adults ages 19-25 in years 2011-2012 was more significant at the higher end of the health care expenditure distribution. Young adults ages 19-25 had significantly higher emergency department costs at the 10th percentile in 2011-2012. Differences in the trends of costs of private health insurance and doctor visits are not statistically significant.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Increased health insurance enrollment as a consequence of the ACA provision for dependent coverage has successfully reduced spending and catastrophic expenditures, providing financial protections for young adults.
- Subjects
UNITED States; MEDICAL care costs; YOUNG adults; PATIENT Protection &; Affordable Care Act; DEPENDENT coverage in health insurance; INSURANCE eligibility; MEDICAL care; ECONOMIC statistics; INSURANCE statistics; HEALTH insurance statistics; MEDICAL care cost statistics; RESEARCH funding; SOCIOECONOMIC factors; CROSS-sectional method; LAW; LEGISLATION
- Publication
Health Services Research, 2017, Vol 52, Issue 5, p1835
- ISSN
0017-9124
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1111/1475-6773.12555