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Activity Number: 345
Type: Contributed
Date/Time: Tuesday, August 5, 2014 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
Abstract #313161 View Presentation
Title: Medicaid Undercount in the American Community Survey
Author(s): Joanna Turner*+ and Kathleen Thiede Call and Michel Boudreaux and Brett Fried and Brett O'Hara
Companies: SHADAC/University of Minnesota and SHADAC/University of Minnesota and SHADAC/University of Minnesota and SHADAC/University of Minnesota and U.S. Census Bureau
Keywords: ACS ; Medicaid Undercount ; validation study ; survey and administrative data ; health insurance coverage
Abstract:

Surveys provide critical data for evaluating the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, measuring health coverage is challenging and all surveys appear to undercount Medicaid enrollment. We examine the extent to which Medicaid enrollment is misreported in the American Community Survey (ACS) by comparing responses from the ACS linked to people shown to be enrolled at the time of the survey in the Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS). We find that in 2009, 78.4% of ACS respondents known to have Medicaid accurately report their coverage; about 12.5% indicate another type of insurance and 9.1% report that they are uninsured. The undercount varies between 2008 and 2009 and the magnitude of the difference varies across states. We examine the undercount across a variety of other characteristics potentially related to accurate reporting including household composition and interview mode, and discuss the role of the undercount in the level of bias to uninsured estimates. We find Medicaid reporting in the ACS is consistent with other federal surveys and the results should provide policymakers confidence in using the ACS data to evaluate the impact of the ACA.


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