New NBER working papers out this week find that Medicaid expansions and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) show that the intended outcomes are hard to achieve.
Medicaid eligibility expansions for pregnant women “reduced the proportion of pregnant women who were uninsured by approximately 10 percent, although this decrease in uninsured came with the expense of a substantial reduction in private insurance coverage. Changes in Medicaid eligibility were associated with very small and statistically insignificant changes in prenatal care use, birth weight, and incidence of low-birth weight.”
Higher income via the EITC gives a short-term bump to test scores for children in reading and math, but the authors “find little evidence of long-run income effects, with most of the effects disappearing after one year.”
