Premium
Healthcare and Hunger: Effects of the ACA Medicaid Expansions on Food Insecurity in America
Author(s) -
Moellman Nicholas
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
applied economic perspectives and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.4
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 2040-5804
pISSN - 2040-5790
DOI - 10.1093/aepp/ppz018
Subject(s) - medicaid , food insecurity , food stamps , low income , poverty , percentage point , environmental health , demographic economics , food security , state (computer science) , business , economics , health care , economic growth , geography , medicine , mathematics , agriculture , welfare , market economy , archaeology , finance , algorithm
I analyze the impact of the ACA Medicaid expansions on food hardship in US households. Utilizing cross‐state, over time variation in Medicaid expansion, I find the ACA expansions reduced the probability a low‐income household is low food secure by between 2.3 and 3.9 percentage points, is very low food secure by between 2.7 and 4.6 percentage points, and is food insecure by 6.5 percentage points. The results are robust to a variety of definitions of food hardship, model specifications, and definitions of Medicaid expansion.