Does Increased Access to Health Insurance Impact Claims for Workers' Compensation? Evidence from Massachusetts Health Care Reform

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Grant Type

Early Career Research Award

Description

The relationship between health insurance coverage and Workers' Compensation (WC) claiming is a long-standing question in the public economics literature, but existing evidence is mixed (see, e.g., Smith, 1990; Card and McCall, 1996; Lakdawalla et al., 2005; Campolieti and Hyatt, 2006; Heaton, 2012; Dillender, 2014). Using data on ER discharges in Massachusetts and comparison states from 2004 through 2008, we plan to examine whether Massachusetts' 2006 health care reform (and the associated increase in insurance coverage) reduced the likelihood an ER discharge was billed to WC.

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