Panel Paper: How Did Massachusetts Health Reform Affect the SSDI Program

Saturday, November 9, 2013 : 10:25 AM
Salon III A (Ritz Carlton)

*Names in bold indicate Presenter

Chun-Chieh Hu, Syracuse University
This paper analyzes the impact of the 2006 Massachusetts health reform on the behavioral interaction between Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) participation decisions and Employer Sponsored Health Insurance (ESHI) expansion. I exploit the variation across SSDI beneficiaries within married couples to identify the causal effect of the reform on SSDI beneficiaries. My estimates imply that the reform increases SSDI beneficiaries by between 0.39% and 0.87% and married couples without spousal ESHI is associated with higher SSDI beneficiaries. These estimates also imply that the probability of applying for SSDI for married couples without ESHI coverage would be 0.27 percentage points higher compared to the counterparts with spousal ESHI coverage.