Using Discontinuous Eligibility Rules to Identify the Effects of the Federal Medicaid Expansions on Low Income Children

54 Pages Posted: 11 Jul 2002 Last revised: 3 Apr 2022

See all articles by David Card

David Card

University of California, Berkeley - Department of Economics; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Lara D. Shore-Sheppard

Williams College - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: July 2002

Abstract

This paper exploits the discrete nature of the eligibility criteria for two major federal expansions of Medicaid to measure the effects on Medicaid coverage, overall health insurance coverage, and the probability of visiting a doctor. The '100 percent' expansion, effective in 1991, extended Medicaid eligibility to children born after September 30, 1983 in families below the poverty line. We estimate that this law led to about a 10 percentage point rise in Medicaid coverage for children born just after the cutoff date, and a similar or slightly smaller rise in overall health insurance. It also increased the fraction of children in the newly eligible group with a doctor visit in the previous year. The '133 percent' expansion, effective in 1990, extended Medicaid to children under 6 in families with incomes below 133 percent of the poverty line. This law had relatively small effects on Medicaid coverage for children near the eligibility limits, and little or no effect on health insurance coverage.

Suggested Citation

Card, David E. and Shore-Sheppard, Lara Dawn, Using Discontinuous Eligibility Rules to Identify the Effects of the Federal Medicaid Expansions on Low Income Children (July 2002). NBER Working Paper No. w9058, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=318853

David E. Card (Contact Author)

University of California, Berkeley - Department of Economics ( email )

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Lara Dawn Shore-Sheppard

Williams College - Department of Economics ( email )

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National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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