Medicaid Expansion Effects on SSI : Evidence from the First Two Years

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 expanded eligibility for public health insurance, Medicaid, to nearly all adults ages 18-64 with household incomes below 138% of the federal poverty line and living in states that opted to participate in the Medicaid expansion. The ACA Medicaid expansion can potentially decrease reliance of disabled adults on the Supplemental Security Income program which provides Medicaid coverage as well as cash assistance to low-income individuals with disabilities. In the paper we estimate the effects of Medicaid expansion on the entry into the Supplemental Security Income in the first two years following the expansion launch in January 2014. We use data from the Social Security Administration and identify causal effects by exploiting cross state variation in Medicaid eligibility resulting from states' decisions about whether to participate in the Medicaid expansion