From Coverage to Consequences: BMI, Health Behaviors, and Self-rated Health After Medicaid Contraction
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866912757124694016 |
|---|---|
| author | Rahman, Md Twfiqur |
| author_facet | Rahman, Md Twfiqur |
| contents | Leveraging Tennessee's 2005 Medicaid contraction, I study the impact of losing public health insurance on body weight and relevant health behaviors. Using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from 1997 to 2010, I estimate synthetic difference-in-differences models. The estimates suggest that the reform increased Body Mass Index by 0.38 points and the overweight or obesity prevalence (BMI$\geq$25) by $\sim$4\% among Tennessean childless adults. My findings -- a 21\% increase in the share of childless adults reporting ``poor'' health status (the lowest level on the five-point scale), a reduction in Medicaid-reimbursed utilization of pain and anti-inflammatory medications, and a reduction in participation in moderate physical activities -- suggest that worsening unmanaged health conditions may be a key pathway through which coverage loss affected weight gain. Additionally, my analysis offers practical guidance for conducting robust inference in single treated cluster settings with limited pre-treatment data. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_19155 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | From Coverage to Consequences: BMI, Health Behaviors, and Self-rated Health After Medicaid Contraction Rahman, Md Twfiqur General Economics Economics Leveraging Tennessee's 2005 Medicaid contraction, I study the impact of losing public health insurance on body weight and relevant health behaviors. Using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from 1997 to 2010, I estimate synthetic difference-in-differences models. The estimates suggest that the reform increased Body Mass Index by 0.38 points and the overweight or obesity prevalence (BMI$\geq$25) by $\sim$4\% among Tennessean childless adults. My findings -- a 21\% increase in the share of childless adults reporting ``poor'' health status (the lowest level on the five-point scale), a reduction in Medicaid-reimbursed utilization of pain and anti-inflammatory medications, and a reduction in participation in moderate physical activities -- suggest that worsening unmanaged health conditions may be a key pathway through which coverage loss affected weight gain. Additionally, my analysis offers practical guidance for conducting robust inference in single treated cluster settings with limited pre-treatment data. |
| title | From Coverage to Consequences: BMI, Health Behaviors, and Self-rated Health After Medicaid Contraction |
| topic | General Economics Economics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.19155 |