The ACA Medicaid Expansion in Michigan and Financial Health Sarah Miller Luojia Hu Robert Kaestner Bhashkar Mazumder Ashley Wong NBER Working Paper No. 25053

Issued in September 2018, Revised in March 2020

NBER Program(s):Health Care, Health Economics

This article examines how the financial health changes following an individual’s enrollment in Michigan’s Medicaid program (Healthy Michigan Program, HMP). We use unique data that links credit reports of HMP enrollees to Medicaid administrative data on enrollment and use of health care services. We find that Medicaid enrollment is associated with large improvements in several measures of financial health, including reductions in unpaid bills, medical bills, over limit credit card spending, and public records (such as evictions, judgments, and bankruptcies). These improvements are apparent across several subgroups, although individuals with greater medical need, such as those with chronic illnesses, experience the largest benefits.

(408 K) Acknowledgments Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w25053