Medicaid Expansion and the Consequences of Unemployment

Findings: The Impact of Medicaid Expansion on Household Consumption; Sayeh Nikpay, Vanderbilt University; Thomas Buchmueller and Helen Levy, University of Michigan

Co-funded with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Though the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program provides partial income replacement for certain individuals who have lost their jobs, it does not fully smooth consumption shocks associated with job loss, leaving households at risk of a range of negative outcomes, including reduced income, difficulty finding new work, loss of health insurance, increased debt, and in the longer run, depleted savings and postponed retirement, increased risk of mortality, and negative outcomes for children. Economists Helen Levy and Thomas Buchmueller will examine the extent to which the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased the safety net for unemployed workers. They will analyze both first-order effects of the Medicaid expansion, such as insurance coverage and health care access, and second-order effects, such as unemployment duration.