The goals of this program of research are to estimate (1) the sociodemographic predictors of food insufficiency among seniors ages 60 and older and (2) the causal impacts of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid on food insecurity and/or insufficiency among seniors. I use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), Current Population Survey (CPS), National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and American Community Survey (ACS). Analyses using HRS data show that, consistent with earlier studies, age, income, work status, disability, education, and race/ethnicity are all significant determinants of food insufficiency; neuroticism is also a significant predictor of food insufficiency. Exploiting the Social Security “notch” in benefits that resulted in lower payments to individuals born just after January 1, 1917 compared with those born just before, I find using HRS data from 1995 that lower income is associated with higher food insufficiency and SNAP use, but these results are imprecisely estimated. Next, using NHIS and HRS data from multiple years, I find no evidence that becoming age-eligible for Medicare at age 65 reduces food insecurity. Finally, a difference-in-difference analysis of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion using ACS and CPS data shows that despite significant increases in Medicaid among seniors in states that implemented expansion compared with those that did not, food insecurity among seniors did not decline. These results suggest that public health insurance does not reduce food insecurity among seniors, perhaps because this benefit is not fungible.
Research
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DP2022-03.pdf