The affordable care act and ambulance response times Articles uri icon

publication date

  • January 2019

volume

  • 67

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 0167-6296

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 1879-1646

abstract

  • This study contributes to the literature on the capacity challenges faced by health care providers after insurance expansions by examining the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and ambulance response times. Exploiting temporal and geographic variation in the implementation of the ACA as well as pre-treatment differences in uninsured rates, we estimate that the expansions of private and Medicaid coverage under the ACA combined to slow ambulance response times by an average of 24%. We conclude that, through extending coverage to individuals who, in its absence, would not have availed themselves of emergency medical services, the ACA added strain to emergency response systems. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.

keywords

  • affordable care act ambulance health care capacity health care workforce health insurance geographical variation health care health insurance health policy health services service provision temporal analysis adult ambulance ambulance response time article controlled study emergency health service health workforce human medicaid medically uninsured health care policy insurance legislation and jurisprudence medicaid surge capacity time factor united states ambulances humans insurance coverage medicaid medically uninsured patient protection and affordable care act surge capacity time factors united states