Insurance Barrier Impacts on Vaccine Hesitancy: Administrative Burden and COVID-19 Vaccination within the Medicaid Population

Abstract

I employ microdata from the Census Bureau’s experimental Household Pulse Survey to examine Medicaid participation impacts on the COVID-19 vaccination decision and find that program recipients exhibited lower proclivities to be vaccinated relative to demographically-similar households insured through some alternative provider. Additionally, I observe that state-level easements in the program enrollment process is associated with significant declines in self-reported vaccination hesitancy. These results suggest the psychic and time costs accompanying the enrollment or benefits utilization processes may be negatively influencing other health behaviors that extend beyond those that pertain directly to the program.