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Health insurance and opioid deaths: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act young adult provision

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  • Gal Wettstein
Abstract
The concurrence of health insurance expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and increasing opioid‐related mortality has led to debate whether insurance increases or decreases opioid deaths. I use the introduction of the ACA young adult (YA) provision as a quasi‐experiment and utilize the resulting policy‐induced variation across states over time in YA access to insurance to study the effect of coverage on opioid‐related mortality. I rely on the share of state populations which stood to gain insurance before the ACA to perform a dose–response analysis, and find that the YA provision reduced opioid‐related mortality. The analysis suggests that 1 percentage point more coverage reduced opioid mortality among YA by 2.5/100,000 or 19.8%.

Suggested Citation

  • Gal Wettstein, 2019. "Health insurance and opioid deaths: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act young adult provision," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 666-677, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:28:y:2019:i:5:p:666-677
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.3872
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Jing Xu & Nazik M. A. Zakari & Hanadi Y. Hamadi & Sinyoung Park & Donald Rob Haley & Mei Zhao, 2021. "The Financial Burden of Opioid-Related Abuse among Surgical and Non-Surgical Patients in Florida: A Longitudinal Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-10, August.
    3. Susan L. Averett & Julie K. Smith & Yang Wang, 2019. "Medicaid expansion and opioid deaths," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(12), pages 1491-1496, December.
    4. Maclean, Johanna Catherine & Tello-Trillo, Sebastian & Webber, Douglas, 2023. "Losing insurance and psychiatric hospitalizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 508-527.
    5. Fone, Zachary S. & Friedson, Andrew I. & Lipton, Brandy & Sabia, Joseph J., 2020. "The Dependent Coverage Mandate Took a Bite Out of Crime," IZA Discussion Papers 12968, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Justine Mallatt & Christopher J. Ruhm & Kosali Simon, 2022. "The Opioid Crisis, Health, Healthcare, and Crime: A Review of Quasi-Experimental Economic Studies," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 703(1), pages 15-49, September.
    7. DiNardi, Michael, 2019. "Uninsurance and Purchases of Prescription Drugs with High Rates of Misuse: Evidence from the Federal Dependent Coverage Mandate," MPRA Paper 97769, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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