2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

333638
Reducing Young Invincibles' Total Health Care Spending through The ACA Expansion of Dependent Coverage


Monday, November 2, 2015 : 12:50 p.m. - 1:10 p.m.

Jie Chen, PhD, Department of Health Services Administration, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, MD
Arturo Vargas Bustamante, PhD, Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
Priscilla Novak, Health Services Administration, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
  
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
objective: To estimate health care expenditure trends among young adults ages 19-25 before and after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) extended eligibility for dependent coverage under private health insurance in 2010.

data sources: National representative Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data in 2008 to 2012.

Study design: We employed a difference-in-difference model to estimate health care expenditure trends among young adults ages 19-25 and ages 27-29. Quantile regression was used to capture different associations between the ACA expansion and healthcare expenditures.

principal findings: Our findings showed a significant reduction of total healthcare expenditures among young adults ages 19-25 years old in 2011-2012 relative to the comparison group. Results of the quantile regressions with the difference-in-difference estimate showed that the ACA expansion was more likely to account for the healthcare expenditure increase among young adults ages 19-25 at the higher end of the healthcare expenditure distribution.

conclusions: Our results showed that this ACA provision significantly reduced overall healthcare expenditures among this target population. Meanwhile, our results suggested that health insurance enrollment might have successfully reduced spending and catastrophic expenditures. More research is needed to focus on the remaining uninsured young adult population after the implementation of this ACA provision.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate health care expenditure trends among young adults ages 19-25 before and after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) extended eligibility for dependent coverage under private health insurance in 2010.

Keyword(s): Health Care Reform, Health Care Costs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: My research focuses on health care organization and policy. I also have extensive quantitative training and research experience in multilevel modeling, decomposition techniques, policy evaluation, and longitudinal data analysis. My research seeks to inform effective allocations of health care resources to improve the integration of health care organizations to promote behavioral health of vulnerable populations.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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