@article{117c4122f3db4a1aa6d702368de87b54,
title = "The credit consequences of unpaid medical bills",
abstract = "This paper quantifies the costs of leaving medical bills unpaid and what these costs imply for the value of health insurance to beneficiaries. We argue that a large fraction of unpaid medical bills is sent to third-party collections and reported to credit bureaus, with detrimental effects on patients' credit outcomes. Combining a large panel of credit records with data on credit offers, we find that the ACA Medicaid expansion reduced newly-reported medical collections by $5.89 billion and led to better terms of credit. We find that the financial benefits of Medicaid at least double when including this indirect credit channel.",
author = "Kenneth Brevoort and Daniel Grodzicki and Hackmann, {Martin B.}",
note = "Funding Information: This is an updated version of our paper formerly titled “Medicaid and Financial Health.” We thank seminar participants at the CFPB, the FDIC, the NBER Summer Institute, the NTA, The Ohio State University, UCLA, the University of Mannheim, and the University of Chicago as well as Leemore Dafny, Mark Duggan, Liran Einav, Bradley Heim, Jon Kolstad, Amanda Kowalski, Neale Mahoney, David Molitor, Tomas Philipson, and Pietro Tebaldi for thoughtful comments and suggestions. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Reserve Board, or the United States. Authors are solely responsible for all remaining errors. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2020 Elsevier B.V.",
year = "2020",
month = jul,
doi = "10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104203",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "187",
journal = "Journal of Public Economics",
issn = "0047-2727",
publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",
}