Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

4-2022

Abstract

We examine the labor market impacts of the Affordable Care Act dependent mandate (ACA-DM), which has significantly increased dependent children's health insurance coverage through parents’ employer-sponsored health benefits. Using data from the American Community Survey, we find that the ACA-DM reduced parents’ annual wages by about $2,600. However, the probability of employment and working hours only decreased marginally. The back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that the magnitude of the estimated wage impact is similar to the increased insurance premium of a family plan due to the ACA-DM. These findings imply that a deadweight loss associated with the expansion of dependent health coverage is likely to be small as an increase in employers’ labor costs is offset by a reduction in parents’ wages without significant reductions in labor inputs.

Keywords

The Affordable Care Act dependent mandate, dependent health insurance coverage, parents’ labor market outcomes, deadweight loss

Discipline

Economics | Health Economics

Research Areas

Applied Microeconomics

Publication

Labour Economics

Volume

75

First Page

1

Last Page

16

ISSN

0927-5371

Identifier

10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102128

Publisher

Elsevier

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102128

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