TY - RPRT T1 - Age-specific Retirement Effects of The ACA Exchanges Y1 - 2020 A1 - Woodruff, Corey KW - Affordable Care Act KW - Older workers KW - Retirement AB - In the U.S., as workers near traditional retirement age, health insurance becomes a major consideration in retirement decisions, especially for those who are too young to qualify for Medicare. In this paper, I examine the extent to which the opening of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges affected the retirement expectations and decisions of older workers. I estimate a difference-in-differences model that exploits variation in workers’ access to employer-based retiree health insurance (RHI) prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Retirement expectations and behavior are compared before and after the 2014 opening of the ACA health insurance exchanges. I find significant effects on both expectations and behavior for those nearing the minimum Social Security Eligibility age of 62, but not for earlier or later ages. The expected probability of working full-time at age 62 declines 5.4 percentages points for those without RHI relative to those with RHI. Treated individuals were 49 percentage points more likely to be retired by age 61 or 62 following the opening of the exchanges, relative to those in the comparison group. PB - University of Colorado, Boulder CY - Boulder, CO UR - https://www.colorado.edu/economics/sites/default/files/attached-files/jmp_woodruff_1026.pdf ER -