The Impact of Medicaid on Labor Market Activity and Program Participation: Evidence from the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment

In 2008, a group of uninsured low-income adults in Oregon was selected by lottery for the chance to apply for Medicaid. Using this randomized design and 2009 administrative data, we find no significant effect of Medicaid on employment or earnings. Our 95 percent confidence intervals allow us to reject that Medicaid causes a decline in employment of more than 4.4 percentage points, or an increase of more than 1.2 percentage points. Medicaid increases food stamps receipt, but has little, if any, impact on receipt of other measured government benefits, including SSDI.United States. Dept. of Health and Human Services (Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation)California HealthCare FoundationJohn D. and Catherine T. MacArthur FoundationNational Institute on Aging (P30AG012810)National Institute on Aging (RC2AGO36631)National Institute on Aging (R01AG0345151)Robert Wood Johnson FoundationAlfred P. Sloan FoundationSmith Richardson FoundationUnited States. Social Security Administration (National Bureau of Economic Research. Grant 5 RRC 08098400-03-00)Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (U.S.