SHARE Grantee Sharon Long Publishes Early Findings from SHARE Research

June 10, 2009.  Sharon Long’s paper, “Another Look at the Impacts of Health Reform in Massachusetts: Evidence Using New Data and a Stronger Model,” was published in a special Papers and Proceedings issue of the American Economic Review (AER).  The May 2009 special issue brings together selected papers from the American Economic Association (AEA) Annual Meeting held in January 2009 in San Francisco.
 
Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), Dr. Long estimated that the uninsurance rate for all non-elderly adults in Massachusetts fell 6.6 percentage points during the first year of health reform.  This decrease in overall adult coverage was largely driven by an estimated 17.3 percent drop in the uninsurance rate among lower-income adults (with income at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level) in the first year post-reform. 
 
While the overall estimate of the impact of health reform on the uninsurance rate is similar, these findings suggest greater gains in insurance coverage for lower-income adults than had been estimated by Dr. Long’s previous research using data from the 2006 and 2007 Massachusetts Health Reform Survey.  This early research estimated a 10.5 percent drop in uninsurance rates for lower-income adults in the first year of reform.   Dr. Long notes that these differences in the coverage estimates for lower-income adults may reflect differences in how the two surveys measure income, with a larger share of Massachusetts residents classified as lower-income by the Massachusetts Health Reform Survey than by the CPS.
 
Click here to link to the full text of Dr. Long's paper (institutional access or AEA membership required to view).  
 
Click here for more information about the Massachusetts Health Reform Survey.
 
Click here to learn more about Dr. Long’s SHARE-sponsored research project.