Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

I use a difference-in-differences strategy to estimate the effects of state public health insurance expansions in the early 2000s on the health insurance coverage and labor supply of low-educated childless adults. Estimates from the 1998 through 2007 March Current Population Surveys suggest the expansions increased low-educated childless women’s public health insurance coverage by 1.2 to 2.5 percentage points, but did not affect the public health insurance coverage of low-educated childless men. I do not find any effects on the labor supply low-educated childless women. These results suggest public health insurance expansions for low-income childless adults did not have negative effects on the labor supply of low-educated childless women as predicted by theoretical labor supply models.