PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Barkowski, Scott
AU  - McLaughlin, Joanne Song
TI  - In Sickness and in Health
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.57.2.0118-9295R2
DP  - 2022 Mar 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 637--688
VI  - 57
IP  - 2
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/57/2/637.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/57/2/637.full
SO  - J Hum Resour2022 Mar 01; 57
AB  - We study the interaction of state and federal dependent health insurance mandates on young adult marriages. Using a new data set on state-level mandates, we show marriage restrictions of these laws reduced marriage likelihoods by about two percentage points. When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted, its mandate ended marriage restrictions, encouraging marriage among those previously eligible for state mandates. However, among those ineligible for state mandates, it discouraged marrying to obtain insurance through spouses. The combination of these contrasting ACA effects eliminated the marriage gap. We also find these marriage effects resulted in corresponding impacts on out-of-wedlock births.