Medicaid's lasting impressions: Population health and insurance at birth

- States' Medicaid adoption was associated with greater infant mortality decline.
- Cohorts born into Medicaid have lower mortality even after aging out of eligibility.
- Associations between Medicaid and mortality were the strongest in infanthood and later adulthood.

This article examines lasting mortality improvements associated with availability of Medicaid at time and place of birth. Using the US Vital Statistics (1959-2010), I exploit the variation in when each of the 50 states adopted Medicaid to estimate overall infant mortality improvements that coincided with Medicaid participation. 0.23 less infant deaths per 1000 live births was associated with states' Medicaid implementation. Second, I find lasting associations between Medicaid and mortality improvements across the life-course. I build state-specific cohort life-tables and regress age-specific mortality on availability of Medicaid in their states at time of birth. Cohorts born after Medicaid adoption had lower mortality rates throughout childhood and into adulthood. Being born after Medicaid was associated with between 2.03 and 3.64 less deaths per 100,000 person-years in childhood and between 1.35 and 3.86 less deaths per 100,000 person-years in the thirties. The association between Medicaid at birth and mortality was the strongest in the oldest age group (36-40) in this study.