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Who Receives Medicaid in Old Age? Rules and Reality
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Who Receives Medicaid in Old Age? Rules and Reality

Author

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  • Margherita Borella
  • Mariacristina De Nardi
  • Eric French

Abstract

Medicaid is a government program that provides health insurance to the old who are sick and have little assets and income compared to their medical needs. Thus, it explicitly tests for income, assets, and health or medical needs to determine eligibility. We ask how these rules map into the reality of Medicaid recipiency and what observable characteristics are important to determine who ends up on Medicaid. The data show that both singles and couples with high retirement income can end up on Medicaid at very advanced ages. We find that, conditioning on a large number of observable characteristics, including those that directly relate to Medicaid eligibility criteria, single women are more likely to end up on Medicaid. So are non-whites, but, surprisingly, their higher recipiency is concentrated above the lower income percentiles. We also find that low-income people with a high school diploma or higher are much less likely to end up on Medicaid than their more educated counterparts. All of these effects are large and depend on retirement income in a very non-linear way.

Suggested Citation

  • Margherita Borella & Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French, 2016. "Who Receives Medicaid in Old Age? Rules and Reality," NBER Working Papers 21873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21873
    Note: AG EH PE
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    Cited by:

    1. Martin B. Hackmann & R. Vincent Pohl & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2024. "Patient versus Provider Incentives in Long-Term Care," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 178-218, July.
    2. Margherita Borella & Mariacristina De Nardi & Fang Yang, 2019. "The lost ones: the opportunities and outcomes of non-college-educated Americans born in the 1960s," Working Papers 2019-022, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    3. Margherita Borella & Mariacristina De Nardi & Fang Yang, 2023. "Are Marriage-Related Taxes and Social Security Benefits Holding Back Female Labour Supply?," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(1), pages 102-131.
    4. Margherita Borella & Mariacristina De Nardi & Fang Yang, 2017. "Marriage-related Policies in an Estimated Life-cycle Model of Households’ Labor Supply and Savings for Two Cohorts," Working Papers wp371, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    5. Margherita Borella & Mariacristina De Nardi & Fang Yang, 2020. "The Lost Ones: The Opportunities and Outcomes of White, Non-College-Educated Americans Born in the 1960s," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 67-115.
    6. Karolos Arapakis & Eric French & John Bailey Jones & Jeremy McCauley, 2022. "How Redistributive Are Public Health Care Schemes? Evidence from Medicare and Medicaid in Old Age," Working Papers wp441, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    7. Margherita Borella & Mariacristina De Nardi & Fang Yang, 2017. "The Effects of Marriage-Related Taxes and Social Security Benefits," NBER Working Papers 23972, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Susann Rohwedder & Péter Hudomiet & Michael D. Hurd, 2022. "Risk of Large Medical Expenditures at Older Ages and Their Impact on Economic Well-being," Working Papers wp457, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    9. Junhao Liu & Anita Mukherjee, 2021. "Medicaid and long‐term care: The effects of penalizing strategic asset transfers," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 88(1), pages 53-77, March.
    10. Eric French & John Bailey Jones & Elaine Kelly & Jeremy McCauley, 2018. "End-of-Life Medical Expenses," Working Paper 18-18, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    11. Martin Benjamin Hackmann & R. Vincent Pohl, 2018. "Patient vs. Provider Incentives in Long-Term Care," CESifo Working Paper Series 7373, CESifo.
    12. Margherita Borella & Fang Yang & Mariacristina De Nardi, 2019. "The changing opportunities and outcomes of non-college educated Americans," 2019 Meeting Papers 206, Society for Economic Dynamics.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health

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