The Impact of Air Pollution on Morbidity, Mortality and Healthcare Cost in the Medicare Population

This paper examines the link between air pollution and morbidity in the U.S. Medicare population. While a number of studies have looked at the relationship between air pollution and mortality, little is known about the relationship between air pollution and morbidity. We link data on pollution (ozone, CO, and PM10/PM2.5) from the EPA’s Air Quality System database to Medicare claims data to estimate the impact of air pollution on the prevalence of morbidities such as stroke, cardiovascular disease and respiratory illness as well as mortality from various causes. Factors such as forest fires, plant openings and closings and weather patterns are used to identify plausibly exogenous variations in air pollution, which are used to estimate the causal impact of pollution on morbidity, mortality and Medicare spending.