Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2007
Publication Title
Journal of Health Economics
Abstract
Infertility currently affects over 6 million individuals in the United States. While most health insurance plans nationwide do not cover infertility diagnoses or treatments, to date 15 states have enacted some form of infertility insurance mandate. In this paper, I use data from the Vital Statistics Detail Natality Data and Census population estimates to examine whether these state-level mandates were successful in increasing fertility rates. Using a difference-in-differences approach, I exploit variation in the enactment of mandates both across states and over time, and identify treatment and control groups that should have been differentially affected by infertility coverage. My results suggest that the mandates significantly increase first birth rates for women over 35, and these results are robust to a number of specification tests.
Keywords
Fertility, Impaired fecundity, Infertility, Insurance mandates
Volume
26
Issue
3
First Page
431
Last Page
446
DOI
10.1016/j.jhealeco.2006.10.012
ISSN
01676296
Recommended Citation
Schmidt, Lucie, "Effects of Infertility Insurance Mandates on Fertility" (2007). Economics: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/eco_facpubs/89
Comments
Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.