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Reducing Frictions in Health Care Access: The ActionHealthNYC Experiment for Undocumented Immigrants

  • Adrienne Sabety
  • Jonathan Gruber
  • Jin Yung Bae
  • Rishi Sood
American Economic Review: Insights
vol. 5, no. 3, September 2023
(pp. 327-46)
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Abstract

In 2016, New York City designed and implemented an intervention to reduce frictions in accessing safety net care: randomly making initial primary care appointments for 2,428 undocumented immigrants. We leverage a novel survey-administrative data linkage to show that the program increased self-reported access to primary care, leading to 23 percent fewer emergency department (ED) visits. High-risk individuals' ED visits fell by 32 percent on average, driving the aggregate effect. Preventive care also increased among individuals visiting sponsored clinics.

Citation

Sabety, Adrienne, Jonathan Gruber, Jin Yung Bae, and Rishi Sood. 2023. "Reducing Frictions in Health Care Access: The ActionHealthNYC Experiment for Undocumented Immigrants." American Economic Review: Insights, 5 (3): 327-46. DOI: 10.1257/aeri.20220126

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
  • I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets
  • I12 Health Behavior
  • I13 Health Insurance, Public and Private
  • I14 Health and Inequality
  • I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
  • J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination