TY  - JOUR
AU  - Barbaresco, Silvia
AU  - Courtemanche, Charles J
AU  - Qi, Yanling
TI  - Impacts of the Affordable Care Act Dependent Coverage Provision on Health-Related Outcomes of Young Adults
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 20148
PY  - 2014
Y2  - May 2014
DO  - 10.3386/w20148
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w20148
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w20148.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Silvia Barbaresco
Box 3992
Atlanta, GA 30302
Georgia
E-Mail: sbarbaresco1@student.gsu.edu

Charles J. Courtemanche
Department of Economics
Gatton College of Business and Economics
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0034
Tel: (859) 323-7990
Fax: (859) 323-1920
E-Mail: courtemanche@uky.edu

Yanling Qi
California State University, Long Beach
College of Health and Human Services
Department of Health Care Administration
1250 Bellflower Bvld - MS4903
HHS2-003
Long Beach, CA 90840-4903
United States
Tel: (562) 985-4009
Fax: (562) 985-5886
E-Mail: Yanling.Qi@csulb.edu
AB  - The first major insurance expansion of the Affordable Care Act – a provision requiring insurers to allow dependents to remain on parents’ health insurance until turning 26 – took effect in September 2010. We estimate this mandate’s impacts on numerous outcomes related to health care access, preventive care utilization, risky behaviors, and self-assessed health. We estimate difference-in-differences models with 23-25 year olds as the treatment group and 27-29 year olds as the control group. For the full sample, the dependent coverage provision increased the probabilities of having health insurance, a primary care doctor, and excellent self-assessed health, while reducing body mass index. However, the mandate also increased risky drinking and did not lead to any significant increases in preventive care utilization. Subsample analyses reveal particularly large gains for men and college graduates.
ER  -