The effect of health insurance coverage on the reported health of young adults

We exploit a sharp change in the likelihood that an individual is covered by health insurance when he/she turns 19 years of age to study how health insurance affects reported health status. We find that an individual is 6 percentage points less likely to have health insurance when he/she turns 19. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we find that having health coverage significantly increases the likelihood of reporting excellent health among young adults.