Medicaid and Provider Supply
69 Pages Posted: 19 Oct 2016 Last revised: 24 Jul 2021
Date Written: October 14, 2020
Abstract
One of the main goals of public health insurance expansions is to increase access to health care services, but doing so may require providers to move to previously underserved areas. Whether and to what extent any such relocation occurs remains an open question. I study how providers choose their practice locations in response to Medicaid expansions for one of the most common forms of primary care, dental care services. I find that expansions of adult Medicaid dental benefits increased the number of dentists per capita in poor counties relative to non-poor counties by 13 percent, or 2.8 dentists per 100,000 population. The increase was larger in counties where the expansions generated greater financial incentives for dentists.
Keywords: Medicaid reform, practice location choice, provider shortage, dental market
JEL Classification: I11, I13, I18, I38
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation