Abstract
This article examines the impact of both the Medicaid expansion and the private insurance-related components of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on voter turnout and registration. We employ a difference-in-difference-in-differences identification strategy exploiting variation over time, state Medicaid expansion status, and within-state local area pre-ACA uninsured rates. Using data between 2006 and 2016 from the November Current Population Survey and the Census Bureau’s Small Area Health Insurance Estimates, our results suggest little effect of the ACA on voter turnout or registration.
- © 2020 Russell Sage Foundation. Courtemanche, Charles, James Marton, and Aaron Yelowitz. 2020. “The Full Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Political Participation.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 6(2): 179–204. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2020.6.2.08. We thank Emily Dunlap for expert research assistance. We also thank the editors, Andrea Campbell and Lara Shore-Sheppard, three anonymous referees, and participants at University of Kentucky’s brownbag economics lunch and the Russell Sage Foundation Social, Political, and Economic Effects of the Affordable Care Act conference for helpful comments. Direct correspondence to: Charles Courtemanche at courtemanche{at}uky.edu, Department of Economics, 244 Gatton Business & Economics Building, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506; James Marton at marton{at}gsu.edu, Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 3992, Atlanta, GA 30302; and Aaron Yelowitz at aaron{at}uky.edu, Department of Economics, 225H Gatton Business & Economics Building, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506.
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