Data on Health Economics and Policy Discussed by Researchers at University of Tampa (How Did the Affordable Care Act Affect Risky Health Behaviors?): Health Economics and Policy

2022 JAN 04 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Researchers detail new data in Health Economics and Policy. According to news reporting originating in Tampa, Florida, by NewsRx editors, the research stated, “The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded insurance coverage in the USA through Medicaid expansions, insurance marketplaces, subsidies, and mandates in 2014. Insurance coverage at such a large scale may affect individuals’ risky health behaviors such as smoking, excessive drinking, overeating, not exercising, and illicit substance use.”

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the University of Tampa, “Those effects are not easy to predict, and they may be positive or negative. On one hand, as more people have access to health care, they may improve their health behaviors with advice from medical professionals, educational materials, tobacco cessation treatments, and healthy behavior incentive programs provided by Medicaid. On the other hand, this increase in access can also lead to moral hazard where reduced costs of health care through insurance can make individuals choose less healthy behaviors. In this study, I asked whether the ACA changed risky health behaviors. I used a difference-in-difference-in-differences regression model where time, state Medicaid expansion status, and local area pre-ACA uninsured rate together constituted my identification strategy. In all my models, I controlled for a large set of individual-level and area-specific variables. I did not find any statistically significant negative effects on risky health behaviors that would have supported the existence of moral hazard that dominates other effects. On the other hand, I found significant improvements in smoking and excessive drinking in 2017 and 2018. These results are robust to using only the subsamples of poor childless adults and the newly insured. Early effects of the ACA’s insurance coverage expansions did not lead to any significant changes in risky health behaviors except for improvements in smoking and excessive drinking in 2017 and 2018.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Further research is needed for the later years as more individuals became aware of these benefits.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: How Did the Affordable Care Act Affect Risky Health Behaviors? Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, 2021. Applied Health Economics and Health Policy can be contacted at: Springer Int Publ Ag, Gewerbestrasse 11, Cham, Ch-6330, Switzerland.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Cagdas Agirdas, University of Tampa, Sykes Coll Business, Box O, 301 W Kennedy Blvd, Tampa, FL 33606, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-021-00699-5. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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