Early Evidence on Employment Responses to the Affordable Care Act (2014)

Principal Investigator: Anne Royalty, PhD, Indiana University
Co-Principal Investigator: Jean Abraham, PhD, University of Minnesota

This project will provide policy-makers with evidence about how the ACA is affecting labor markets and how states could make policy changes to improve job-related outcomes. The researchers will use data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) to analyze the impact of various ACA provisions on employment-related outcomes during the first year of full implementation and how these impacts vary with the policies and marketplace structures in place across the states. Using MEPS-IC data from 2010-2014 in combination with state-level data from other sources describing health insurance marketplaces, insurance regulation, and Medicaid expansions, the researchers will model private employers' insurance offerings as a function of state policies and how well a state's marketplace is operating. The researchers will also model employers' full- versus part-time distribution of workers as a function of state policies and other factors.

Publications

The Impact of Medicaid Expansion on Employer Provision of Health Insurance
(November 2017, Presentation)

How Has the Affordable Care Act Affected Work and Wages?
(January 2017, LDI Issue Brief)

Early Evidence on Employer Responses to the Affordable Care Act: Employer Coverage Offers
(November 2016, Presentation)

Employer-Sponsored Insurance Offers: Largely Stable In 2014 Following ACA Implementation
(October 2016, Journal Article)

Media Coverage

University of Minnesota Study Finds ACA Didn't Shrink Employer Health Coverage

(January 2019, Newspaper Article)