危机期间医疗保险的价值：医疗补助（Medicaid）实施对流感大流行死亡率的影响

中文摘要

本文研究公共医疗保险可及性的改善如何影响大流行期间的婴儿死亡率。分析结合了各州法定医疗补助（Medicaid）参保资格的差异，以及该计划于1965年实施前后不久分别发生的两次流感大流行。我们发现，在参保资格覆盖范围较广的州，公共医疗保险可及性的改善大幅降低了大流行期间的婴儿死亡率。这一降幅之大，无法仅归因于新增医疗补助受益者，这表明扩大公共医疗保险的可及性有助于减缓更广泛人群中的疾病传播。

Abstract

Abstract This paper studies how better access to public health insurance affects infant mortality during pandemics. The analysis combines cross-state variation in mandated eligibility for Medicaid with two influenza pandemics that arrived shortly before and after the program’s introduction in 1965. We find that better access to public health insurance in high-eligibility states substantially reduced pandemic infant mortality. The reductions in pandemic infant mortality are too large to be attributable solely to new Medicaid recipients, suggesting that expanded access to public health insurance helped mitigate disease transmission among the broader population.