Possibility of Cost Offset in Expanding Health Insurance Coverage: Using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 2008
By Catherine Moon
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aims to substantially reduce the number of the
uninsured over time and asserts that the financial burden of extending insurance coverage to the
previously uninsured will be offset by the benefit of the attendant improvement in their health.
Motivated by this policy, I explore whether health-insurance status and type affect one’s likelihood of
improving or maintaining health using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data. I build a set of
ordered regression models for health-status transitions under the first-order Markov assumption and
estimate it using maximum likelihood estimation. I perform a series of likelihood ratio tests for pooling to determine whether the latent propensity index is the same between adjacent initial health-status groups. Empirical results imply that expanding health care to the unwillingly uninsured due to severe
economic constraints and extending the scope of public insurance to that of private insurance will lead to improvement or maintenance of health for the relatively healthy population, implying the possibility of cost off-set in the expansion of coverage and the extension of scope.
Advisor: Frank Sloan, Michelle Connolly | JEL Codes: C12, C25, I12, I13, I18 | Tagged: Health Insurance, Health Transition, Ordered Regression Model, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Self-Assessed Health Status, Test for Pooling Adjacent Ordinal Categories
The Dynamics of Health Care Demand During an Illness Episode
By David Benson
Previous studies assume consumers make medical care choices over large (e.g. yearly) time steps. However, most health expenses occur in the weeks immediately following a shock to health. It is unknown whether demand during an illness episode diers from normal long-run demand. How do consumers make the sequential, dynamic choices to consume medical care during an episode of severe illness? A theory of the consumer’s short-run health investment is oered and tested empirically using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. It is found that demand is extremely price inelastic immediately following the shock, but is very responsive to changes in health.
Advisor: Frank Sloan | JEL Codes: I1
Assessing Abortion The Impact of Legalized Abortion on the Welfare of American Women
by Katherine N. Fisher
Abstract
By examining data on educational attainment, workforce participation, and marriage market bargaining power, this paper assesses the impact of legalized abortion on women’s welfare. Access to abortion is found to increase education levels and employment rates. However, such access may also increase rates of sexually transmitted disease and disadvantage women in the marriage markets. Although negative implications are established, they do not appear strong enough to counteract the positive impacts of abortion access. Legalized abortion is a highly demanded public good, and seems to serve in the best interest of women by empowering them through choice.
Professor Marjorie McElroy, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: H3, I14, K4
Comparative Cost Outcomes Analysis between Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery Versus Drug Eluding Coronary Artery Stenting
by Shivum Agarwal
Abstract
With the recent advent of the drug eluding stent as a possible alternative for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, the economics of cardiac healthcare have shifted dramatically. Many doctors are now electing to send their patients to an invasive cardiologist for cardiac catheterization rather than for open heart surgery. However, the debate continues as to whether stenting is a viable alternative to open heart surgery. This study seeks to approach this problem with an economic analysis of the comparative cost‐effectiveness of the two procedures. Using a variety of statistical techniques including conventional mean differences tests and linear probability models, we test the relative effectiveness of the different treatment options.
Professor Lori Leachman, Faculty Advisor
JEL Codes: I1, I12
