Hamersma study on parental Medicaid expansions and job mobility published in JHE
Jun 30, 2009
The Effect of Parental Medicaid Expansions on Job Mobility
Sarah Hamersma & Matthew Kim
Journal of Health Economics, June 2009
In this paper, the authors examine the effect of parental Medicaid expansions on job mobility. If expanded Medicaid eligibility makes it easier for a person to have health coverage between jobs, the authors expect it to reduce "job lock" that occurs for workers with employer-provided health insurance. Expanded eligibility could also decrease mobility among those in jobs without health insurance, since they experience less pressure to move to an insured job ("job push"). The authors find strong evidence that expanded eligibility reduces job lock among unmarried women but not men or married women, and only weak evidence of reduced job push among men.