TY  - JOUR
AU  - Courtemanche, Charles
AU  - Marton, James
AU  - Ukert, Benjamin
AU  - Yelowitz, Aaron
AU  - Zapata, Daniela
TI  - Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Behaviors after Three Years
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 24511
PY  - 2018
Y2  - April 2018
DO  - 10.3386/w24511
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w24511
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w24511.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
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

James Marton
Georgia State University
Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
Department of Economics
P.O. Box 3992
Atlanta, GA 30302-3992
E-Mail: marton@gsu.edu

Benjamin D. Ukert
212 Adriance Lab Rd
College Station, TX 77843
E-Mail: benukert@gmail.com

Aaron Yelowitz
University of Kentucky
Department of Economics
225H Business and Economics Building
Lexington, KY 40506
Tel: 859/257-7634
Fax: 859/323-1920
E-Mail: aaron@uky.edu

Daniela Zapata
Impaq International
1325 G Street, NW
Suite 900
Washington, DC 20005
E-Mail: dzapata@impaqint.com
AB  - This paper examines the impacts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – which substantially increased insurance coverage through regulations, mandates, subsidies, and Medicaid expansions – on behaviors related to future health risks after three years. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and an identification strategy that leverages variation in pre-ACA uninsured rates and state Medicaid expansion decisions, we show that the ACA increased preventive care utilization along several dimensions, but also increased risky drinking. These results are driven by the private portions of the law, as opposed to the Medicaid expansion. We also conduct subsample analyses by income and age.
ER  -