Working Paper: NBER ID: w23203
Authors: Yaa Akosa Antwi; Johanna Catherine Maclean
Abstract: We re-visit the relationship between private health insurance mandates, access to employer-sponsored health insurance, and labor market outcomes using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. We model employer-sponsored health insurance access and labor market outcomes across the lifecycle as a function of the number of high cost mandates in place at labor market entrance. We find no evidence that high cost state health insurance mandates discourage employers from offering insurance to employees. Employers adjust wages and labor demand to offset mandate costs. Mandate effects are persistent but not permanent. We document heterogeneity across worker-types.
Keywords: health insurance; labor market outcomes; mandates
JEL Codes: H21; I13; J3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| high-cost health insurance mandates (G52) | employers' sponsored insurance (ESI) offers (J32) |
| high-cost health insurance mandates (G52) | wages (J31) |
| high-cost health insurance mandates (G52) | reduction in weeks worked (J22) |
| initial labor market conditions (J29) | long-term outcomes (I12) |
| high-cost health insurance mandates (G52) | heterogeneous effects on lesser-skilled workers (J79) |