This dissertation looks at how public health programs and prescription drug insurance affect health and health-related behaviors and expenditures. The first chapter examines the effect of Medicaid prescription drug coverage on state-level mortality using the implementation period as a natural experiment. The second chapter looks at state-level changes in life expectancy from the 1970s to 2000s and explores the role of state prescription drug programs as a possible explanatory variable. The third chapter examines how health care expenditures change with prescription drug insurance status.
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