Labor Force Participation and the Extension of Medicaid by the Forthcoming Affordable Care Act of 2010

This paper investigates the impact of Medicaid eligibility expansion set forth in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. The extension of Medicaid eligibility to 133% of the Federal Poverty level nationwide will impact labor force participation and welfare participation decisions of single mothers with dependent children. Following from existing literature, this paper uses a simple probit model to analyze the probability changes of labor force and welfare participation as well as identify which characteristics contribute most to these decisions. Mixed results suggest that the eligibility expansion will reduce welfare participation decisions for single white mother by 1.14%