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Paper Type

Complete

Description

This study investigates the impact of health policy, specifically the Individual Mandate Repeal (IMR), on the use of medical crowdfunding. We employ a difference-in-differences research design and find that IMR has led to an increase in medical crowdfunding usage, with significant heterogeneity among users. Specifically, individuals with high cultural capital and bridging social capital, but low bonding social capital, are more likely to increase their use of medical crowdfunding. These results suggest that the socio-technology for healthcare financing purpose (i.e., online medical crowdfunding) responds to the gap of the Affordable Care Act (i.e., IMR), and its usage is shaped by individual differences in cultural and social capital. The policy implication is that medical crowdfunding platform provides opportunities to take on the shortcomings of health policy, but the opportunity exploration or its usages are disparate across populations with varying levels of capital. Public health policymakers may develop policies fostering bridging social capital to expand the healthcare affordable opportunities for underserved populations without imposing taxes and mandate regulations.

Paper Number

1566

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Aug 10th, 12:00 AM

Policy Change, Social and Cultural Capital and Medical Crowdfunding Use: A Quasi-Natural Experiment

This study investigates the impact of health policy, specifically the Individual Mandate Repeal (IMR), on the use of medical crowdfunding. We employ a difference-in-differences research design and find that IMR has led to an increase in medical crowdfunding usage, with significant heterogeneity among users. Specifically, individuals with high cultural capital and bridging social capital, but low bonding social capital, are more likely to increase their use of medical crowdfunding. These results suggest that the socio-technology for healthcare financing purpose (i.e., online medical crowdfunding) responds to the gap of the Affordable Care Act (i.e., IMR), and its usage is shaped by individual differences in cultural and social capital. The policy implication is that medical crowdfunding platform provides opportunities to take on the shortcomings of health policy, but the opportunity exploration or its usages are disparate across populations with varying levels of capital. Public health policymakers may develop policies fostering bridging social capital to expand the healthcare affordable opportunities for underserved populations without imposing taxes and mandate regulations.

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