The Economic Consequences of Hospital Admissions

Carlos Dobkin, Amy Finkelstein, Raymond Kluender, Matthew J. Notowidigdo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

234 Scopus citations

Abstract

We use an event study approach to examine the economic consequences of hospital admissions for adults in two datasets: survey data from the Health and Retirement Study, and hospitalization data linked to credit reports. For non-elderly adults with health insurance, hospital admissions increase out-of-pocket medical spending, unpaid medical bills, and bankruptcy, and reduce earnings, income, access to credit, and consumer borrowing. The earnings decline is substantial compared to the out-of-pocket spending increase, and is minimally insured prior to age-eligibility for Social Security Retirement Income. Relative to the insured non-elderly, the uninsured non-elderly experience much larger increases in unpaid medical bills and bankruptcy rates following a hospital admission. Hospital admissions trigger fewer than 5 percent of all bankruptcies in our sample.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)308-352
Number of pages45
JournalAmerican Economic Review
Volume108
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2018

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge funding from the National Institute on Aging P01AG005842 and R01 AG032449 (Finkelstein). This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant 1122374 (Kluender). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Economics and Econometrics

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