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Full-Text Articles in Health Economics
Do Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Addictions And Deaths Related To Pain Killers?, David Powell, Rosalie Pacula, Mireille Jacobson
Do Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Addictions And Deaths Related To Pain Killers?, David Powell, Rosalie Pacula, Mireille Jacobson
David Powell
Recent work finds that medical marijuana laws reduce the daily doses filled for opioid analgesics among Medicare Part-D and Medicaid enrollees, as well as population-wide opioid overdose deaths. We replicate the result for opioid overdose deaths and explore the potential mechanism. The key feature of a medical marijuana law that facilitates a reduction in overdose death rates is a relatively liberal allowance for dispensaries. As states have become more stringent in their regulation of dispensaries, the protective value generally has fallen. These findings suggest that broader access to medical marijuana facilitates substitution of marijuana for powerful and addictive opioids.
Imperfect Synthetic Controls: Did The Massachusetts Health Care Reform Save Lives?, David Powell
Imperfect Synthetic Controls: Did The Massachusetts Health Care Reform Save Lives?, David Powell
David Powell
In 2006, Massachusetts enacted comprehensive health care reform which served as a model for the Affordable Care Act. I study the mortality effects of the reform using synthetic control estimation, relaxing two critical assumptions required to implement this method. The traditional approach assumes the existence of a perfect synthetic control, which cannot exist if the outcomes of the treated unit are outside of the "convex hull" or functions of transitory shocks. I propose simple modifications to relax these restrictions. The new estimator outperforms the traditional method in simulations. I estimate that the Massachusetts Health Care Reform reduced mortality by 3%.