Class 23: Medicaid Expansion and Hospital Uncompensated Care

Published

April 7, 2026

The goal of this module is to understand difference-in-differences as a causal identification strategy. We’ll do this in the context of Medicaid expansion and its effect on hospital uncompensated care.

Objectives

  • Understand some of the large changes introduced by the Affordable Care Act
  • Explain what we mean by “Medicaid expansion”
  • Understand HCRIS data on hospital uncompensated care

Activities

  • Summarize trends in uncompensated care over time
  • Compare uncompensated care in Medicaid expansion vs. non-expansion states

References

Angrist, J., and J. Pischke. 2009. Mostly Harmless Econometrics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Courtemanche, Charles, James Marton, Benjamin Ukert, Aaron Yelowitz, and Daniela Zapata. 2017. “Early Impacts of the Affordable Care Act on Health Insurance Coverage in Medicaid Expansion and Non-Expansion States.” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 36 (1): 178–210.
Obama, Barack. 2016. “United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps.” Jama 316 (5): 525–32.