Health insurance and subjective well-being: Evidence from two healthcare reforms in the United States

Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    11 Citations (Scopus)

    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.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)233-249
    Number of pages17
    JournalHealth Economics (United Kingdom)
    Volume31
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2022 Jan

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

    Keywords

    • Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion
    • Massachusetts healthcare reform
    • Tennessee Medicaid disenrollment
    • health insurance
    • life satisfaction
    • subjective well-being

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Health Policy

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