  A large body of research documents that the 2010 dependent coverage mandate
of the Affordable Care Act was responsible for significantly increasing health
insurance coverage among young adults. No prior research has examined whether
sexual minority young adults also benefitted from the dependent coverage
mandate, despite previous studies showing lower health insurance coverage among
sexual minorities and the fact that their higher likelihood of strained
relationships with their parents might predict a lower ability to use parental
coverage. Our estimates from the American Community Surveys using
difference-in-differences and event study models show that men in same-sex
couples age 21-25 were significantly more likely to have any health insurance
after 2010 compared to the associated change for slightly older 27 to
31-year-old men in same-sex couples. This increase is concentrated among
employer-sponsored insurance, and it is robust to permutations of time periods
and age groups. Effects for women in same-sex couples and men in different-sex
couples are smaller than the associated effects for men in same-sex couples.
These findings confirm the broad effects of expanded dependent coverage and
suggest that eliminating the federal dependent mandate could reduce health
insurance coverage among young adult sexual minorities in same-sex couples.
