The Relationship Between Health Insurance and Early Retirement: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act

Abstract

Beginning with the first round of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansions, which specifically targeted low-income adults without dependent children, the uninsured rate reached a record low in 2015. However, the spillover effects of the Medicaid expansion, such as the relationship between health insurance and labor supply, have become a point of interest for both researchers and policy makers alike. In working paper 1807, PERC postdoctoral research associate Erkmen Giray Aslim investigates whether the increased availability of Medicaid through the ACA’s expansions affects the retirement decisions of targeted workers. Among low-income childless adults, findings show that the expansions increased Medicaid enrollment for both men and women, and that enrollment resulted in women retiring early, whereas no significant change was observed for men.