Publications:

Seeking Permission: The Effect of Changing the Opt Out Procedure for the Military Survivor Benefit Plan, March 2017, National Tax Journal, 70(1)

This paper examines whether a policy that changed the requirements for retiring married service members to opt out of survivor benefits, similar to the Retirement Equity Act of 1984, affected the enrollment decision. Using administrative data on military retirees, I find that those retiring after the policy are approximately seven percentage points more likely to choose pension survivor benefits with the increase in enrollment larger among enlisted personnel. This study contributes to the growing literature regarding how seemingly minor policy changes substantially affect enrollment behavior.

(Previous draft here)

An Examination of Veteran Health Access Around the Medicare Eligibility Age (Job Market Paper) (download here)
(Forthcoming at Contemporary Economic Policy)

Many recent news reports raise the specter that health care for veterans may be inadequate. This paper seeks to empirically shed light on the topic. Using Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data, we compare utilization rates of preventative care by male veterans and non-veterans around the near-universal health coverage that comes with Medicare eligibility. The change in consumption of preventative services with Medicare eligibility shows if unmet need exists. We use changes in usage rates for prostate exams and cholesterol tests, and if a respondent has been to the doctor around Medicare eligibility as a proxy for health care adequacy, with a higher increase in usage rates associated with less adequacy before Medicare eligibility. Using a difference-in-differences (DID) strategy as well as a fixed effect (FE) strategy comparing veterans and non-veterans, results suggest that, while there is some unmet need for veterans below the age of 65, health care adequacy for male veterans between the ages of 56 and 64, as measured by these preventative services, is at least as good as that of non-veterans and may be better.

Working Papers:

Older Veterans’ Health Insurance, Access Patterns, and The VA (download here)

This paper uses the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data to answer three questions: How are veterans insured? How do veterans’ sources of insurance vary with age? And where do veterans get their health care, if they choose to receive health care? Veterans are more likely to be insured through their own employer than through a spouse’s employer. They are less likely to receive Medicaid than non-veterans, but more likely to report government health insurance. As veterans age, they are more likely to have health insurance in some form than non-veterans. The majority of veterans (78.8%) receive health care only outside of the VA. About 1 in 5 respondents report using the VA for all of their health care services. A non-trivial 15% of veterans have not received any care in the last two years, however this group seems to be in relatively good health. The questions examined in this paper are critical when considering the future demand of VA care and potential reform to the VA health system.