Public Health Insurance Eligibility and Labor Outcomes

This paper investigates the effect of Medicaid expansion on labor outcomes by focusing on childless adults, who have had limited access to public insurance in the past. Utilizing an empirical methodology which includes Difference-in-Differences (DiD) and Triple Difference (DDD) models, I analyze the effects of Medicaid expansion on labor variables such as unemployment status, labor force participation, full-time employment, and self-employment. I also incorporate robustness checks based on family income levels, eligibility criteria for childless adults, marital status, CPS ASEC dataset, and parallel trend assumptions. Based on the combined estimates of the four labor outcomes, I find little evidence that Medicaid expansion had an impact on labor outcomes for eligible childless adults, suggesting minimal alleviation of the employment lock in the medium run. These results contribute to the ongoing discussion on the supply-side labor market effects of Medicaid expansion and show the potential implications of public insurance accessibility for policymakers.