Working Paper: NBER ID: w26079
Authors: Riley K. Acton; Scott A. Imberman; Michael F. Lovenheim
Abstract: Social programs and mandates are usually studied in isolation, but interaction effects could create spillovers to other public goods. We examine how health insurance coverage affects the education of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the context of state-mandated private therapy coverage. Since Medicaid benefits under the mandate were far weaker than under private insurance, we proxy for Medicaid ineligibility and estimate effects via triple-differences. While we find little change in ASD identification, the mandate crowds-out special education supports for students with ASD by shifting students to less restrictive environments and reducing the use of ASD specialized teacher consultants. A lack of short-run impact on achievement supports our interpretation of the service reductions as crowd-out and indicates that the shift does not academically harm students with ASD.
Keywords: health insurance; education; autism; special education; mandates
JEL Codes: H41; I13; I21
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Autism insurance mandate (G52) | likelihood of receiving an ASD special education identification (I24) |
| Autism insurance mandate (G52) | placement in resource room or cognitive impairment programs (I24) |
| Autism insurance mandate (G52) | placement in no special education program (I29) |
| Autism insurance mandate (G52) | assignment of ASD-specialized teacher consultant (A29) |
| Autism insurance mandate (G52) | academic performance (reading and math test scores) (I21) |