Does extending health insurance coverage to the uninsured improve population health outcomes?
GROUND: An ongoing debate exists about whether the US should adopt a universal health insurance programme. Much of the debate has focused on programme implementation and cost, with relatively little attention to benefits for social welfare. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the effect on US population health outcomes, measured by mortality, of extending private health insurance to the uninsured, and to obtain a rough estimate of the aggregate economic benefits of extending insurance coverage to the uninsured. METHOD: We use state-level panel data for all 50 states for the period 1990-2000 to estimate a health insurance augmented, aggregate health production function for the US. An instrumental variables fixed-effects estimator is used to account for confounding variables and reverse causation from health status to insurance coverage. Several observed factors, such as income, education, unemployment, cigarette and alcohol consumption and population demographic characteristics are included to contr
