Date of Award
Spring 5-2019
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Economics
Advisor/Committee Chair
Pinka Chatterji, Ph.D.
Abstract
In 2010, the Obama administration passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) commonly known as Obamacare. However, it is in 2014 that several key parts of the ACA went into effect. Among those key parts is the Medicaid expansion program. States that chose to adopt the policy, expanded Medicaid access to everyone under 138 percent of the federal poverty line. This extension had the largest impact on childless adults who previously were not covered by the program. Moreover, ACA made it mandatory for all health plans (private and public) to include the ten essential health benefits in their most basic packages. One of the 10 essential benefits is preventive care that includes cancers’ screenings. Consequently, screenings became more affordable and accessible for millions of individuals across the country. Using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), I estimated the impact of the ACA policy changes to make breast and cervical cancer screenings more available. My results were not significant enough to draw any conclusions. It is likely that the limitations I encounter with my data sample (breast and cervical cancer screenings questions were only available for even years in the BRFSS Database), reduced my ability to analyze any significant trends. However, I found out that having an insurance and a health care provider was highly correlated with the respondents following cancer screenings guidelines (every three years for pap smear and every two years for mammograms).
Recommended Citation
Kobou Wafo, Michelle Raissa, "The Effects of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion On Breast And Cervical Cancer Screening Rates On Low-income Childless Women" (2019). Economics. 6.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/honorscollege_econ/6