Working Paper: NBER ID: w22531
Authors: Pinka Chatterji; Yue Li
Abstract: We test whether early Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid expansions in Connecticut (CT), Minnesota (MN), California (CA), and the District of Columbia (DC) affected SSI applications, SSI and DI awards, and the number of SSI and DI beneficiaries. We use a difference-in-difference (DD) approach, comparing SSI/DI outcomes pre and post each early Medicaid expansion (“Early Expanders”) to SSI/DI outcomes in states that expanded Medicaid in January 2014 (“Later Expanders”). We also use a synthetic control approach, in which we examine SSI/DI outcomes before and after the Medicaid expansion in each Early Expander state, utilizing a weighted combination of Later Expanders as a comparison group. In CT, the Medicaid expansion is associated a statistically significant, 7 percent reduction in SSI beneficiaries; this finding is consistent across the DD and synthetic control methods. For DC, MN and CA, we do not find consistent evidence that the Medicaid expansions affected disability-related outcomes.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I10; I13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| migration patterns (F22) | increase in SSI awards and recipients (I38) |
| Medicaid expansion (I18) | reduction in SSI beneficiaries (H55) |
| Medicaid expansion (I18) | increase in SSI awards and recipients (I38) |
| Medicaid expansion (I18) | reduction in SSI beneficiaries (H55) |
| Medicaid expansion (I18) | lack of significant changes in SSI-related outcomes (I24) |