Spousal Labor Market Effects from Government Health Insurance: Evidence from a Veterans Affairs Expansion

Discussion and Conclusion

In conclusion, when an older husband obtains public health insurance
that does not cover his family members, less-educated wives increase their labor
supply. Wives with a high school education or less increase their labor supply 3
percentage points, a 6% increase. These less educated women also work 0.6-0.8
more hours per week after the policy change. We find no statistically significant
change in probability of work for wives with higher levels of education.
Conditional on non-zero earnings, real earnings increase for all wives in this
sample, and the effect is potentially larger for wives with some college education
or more.

Results also differ by access to employer-provided health insurance in the
previous year. Women without this health insurance increase their hours to a
greater extent than women with this insurance in the previous year once their
husbands are offered health insurance. Although all women on average increase
their full-time work and their labor force participation, women who were not
working in the previous year are more likely to enter the labor force to participate
in part-time work or self-employment. Women who worked part-time in the
previous year are more likely to increase their hours to full-time work. Women
who previously worked full-time do not seem to be as affected by their husband’s
access to publicly provided health insurance. These results suggest that women in

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