The impact of an SCHIP freeze on children and parent's health insurance coverage

Abstract

Taking advantage of an Arizona children's health insurance program enrollment freeze, I study how the loss of children's public insurance affects children and parents. I confirm that the policy led to a decrease in public coverage among children and find partially offsetting gains in employer-sponsored insurance coverage. I find evidence that parents of affected children responded by enrolling in employer-sponsored plans rather than adjusting labor supply. Parents of slightly older children who were unaffected by the policy do not exhibit any responses to the freeze. These results can be informative of the ongoing Medicaid unwinding.