The Affordable Care Act and Racial Disparities in Healthcare Utilization: New Evidence From Employer Mandate

Abstract

The 2010 United States Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates small and mid-size firms to provide health insurance for full-time workers. This study investigates whether a key provision of the ACA employer mandate has reduced racial disparities in health services use among uterine cancer (UC) survivors. Employing a nationally representative Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data from 2008 to 2017 and the Difference-in-Differences empirical model, we find that the ACA employer mandate increases the utilization of pap smear tests among all groups of UC survivors. Additionally, our results suggest a rise in physician's office visits among non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic UC survivors driven by the announcement of the employer mandate in the post-ACA period. Our results further suggest a reduction in out-of-pocket prescription drug expenditure among UC survivors of racial and ethnic minorities. Study findings have implications for improving ethnic minority female population health outcomes.