Child Support and the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid Expansions. (31st July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bullinger, Lindsey Rose
• Is Part Of: Journal of policy analysis and management. Volume 40:issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 42
• Page End: 77
• Publication Date: 2020-07-31
• Subjects: Policy sciences -- Periodicals; Political planning -- United States -- Periodicals; United States -- Social policy -- Periodicals; 353
• DOI: 10.1002/pam.22238
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0276-8739

Abstract

Abstract: A quickly developing literature has shown that the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) Medicaid expansions have improved health insurance coverage, health, and financial well‐being among low‐income adults without dependent children. This population includes noncustodial parents. With substantial overlap in the population that is typically obligated to pay child support and the population that has strongly benefited from the expansions, there may be potential implications for child support enforcement. In this paper, I examine the effect of public health insurance eligibility to low‐income adults on child support outcomes. I find that the ACA Medicaid expansions increased child support distributed to custodial families as arrears by 8.5 percent. Evidence also suggests current support distributions increased by about 2 percent. There were no significant effects on paying toward a child support order. Among unmarried mothers, the likelihood of child support receipt increased by 8 percent. These results imply that access to public health insurance can increase the ability of noncustodial parents to pay child support.