@article{e91627e923aa40f386829a2182e781b2,
title = "Health insurance and subjective well-being: Evidence from two healthcare reforms in the United States",
abstract = "We study the role of access to health insurance coverage as a determinant of individuals' subjective well-being (SWB) by analyzing large-scale healthcare reforms in the United States. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find that the 2006 Massachusetts reform and 2014 Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion improved the overall life satisfaction of Massachusetts residents and low-income adults in Medicaid expansion states, respectively. The results are robust to various sensitivity and falsification tests. Our findings imply that access to health insurance plays an important role in improving SWB. Without considering psychological benefits, the actual benefits of health insurance may be underemphasized.",
keywords = "Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion, Massachusetts healthcare reform, Tennessee Medicaid disenrollment, health insurance, life satisfaction, subjective well-being",
author = "Seonghoon Kim and Kanghyock Koh",
note = "Funding Information: Junxing Chay provided excellent research assistance. We are grateful to the editor, two anonymous reviewers, Andrew Clark, Steven Durlauf, Paul Frijters, Andrew Oswald, Craig Garthwaite, Jon Gruber, John Ham, Kosali Simon, and the seminar participants at the London School of Economics, Korea University, New York University‐Abu Dhabi, Singapore Management University, National University of Singapore, and Jinan University, as well as the conference participants at the Royal Economic Society meeting, the 2019 ISQOLS meeting, and the Korea Development Institute School‐3ie conference for their helpful comments. We merged two previously circulated working papers titled “Did the Massachusetts Healthcare Reform Make People Happier?” and “The Effects of the ACA Medicaid Expansion on SWB.” Kim and Koh are supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF‐2021S1A5A2A03064205). All errors are our own. Funding Information: Junxing Chay provided excellent research assistance. We are grateful to the editor, two anonymous reviewers, Andrew Clark, Steven Durlauf, Paul Frijters, Andrew Oswald, Craig Garthwaite, Jon Gruber, John Ham, Kosali Simon, and the seminar participants at the London School of Economics, Korea University, New York University-Abu Dhabi, Singapore Management University, National University of Singapore, and Jinan University, as well as the conference participants at the Royal Economic Society meeting, the 2019 ISQOLS meeting, and the Korea Development Institute School-3ie conference for their helpful comments. We merged two previously circulated working papers titled “Did the Massachusetts Healthcare Reform Make People Happier?” and “The Effects of the ACA Medicaid Expansion on SWB.” Kim and Koh are supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2021S1A5A2A03064205). All errors are our own. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.",
year = "2022",
month = jan,
doi = "10.1002/hec.4448",
language = "English",
volume = "31",
pages = "233--249",
journal = "Health Economics (United Kingdom)",
issn = "1057-9230",
publisher = "John Wiley and Sons Ltd",
number = "1",
}
