Does the availability of parental health insurance affect the college enrollment decision of young Americans?

Abstract

The present study examines whether the college enrollment decision of young individuals (student full-time, student part-time, non-student) depends on health insurance coverage via a parent’s family health plan. Our findings indicate that the availability of parental health insurance has significant effects on the probability that a young individual enrolls as a full-time student. A young individual who has access to health insurance via a parent is up to 22 percent more likely to enroll as a full-time student than an individual without parental health insurance. After controlling for unobserved heterogeneity this probability drops to 5.5-6.5 percent but is still highly significant. We also find that the marginal effect of the availability of parental health insurance has a larger effect on older students between ages 21-23. We provide a brief discussion about possible implications of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 in this context.