The Impact of Medicaid on Labor Force Activity and Program Participation: Evidence from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment
In 2008, a group of uninsured low-income adults in Oregon was selected by lottery for the chance to apply for Medicaid. We use this randomized design and 2009 administrative data to evaluate the effect of Medicaid on labor market outcomes and participation in other social safety net programs. We find no significant effect of Medicaid on employment or earnings: our 95 percent confidence intervals allow us to reject that Medicaid causes a decline in employment of more than 4.4 percentage points, or an increase of more than 1.2 percentage points. We find that Medicaid increases receipt of food stamps, but has little, if any, impact on receipt of other government benefits, including SSDI.
Non-Technical Summaries
- Expanding Medicaid in Oregon did not affect beneficiaries' employment or earnings. Most studies of Medicaid focus on the effects of...
Published Versions
The Impact of Medicaid on Labor Market Activity and Program Participation: Evidence from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, Vol. 104, no. 5, pp 322-328, May 2014