NASHVILLE, Tenn.-Leaders of Vanderbilt's LGBTQ+ Policy Lab have provided the first comprehensive evidence on the effects of access to legal same-sex marriage. Their efforts revealed that marriage access impacted the LGBTQ+ community positively in multiple ways.
The first-of-its-kind study, published last year, analyzed aspects of both marriage and health in same-sex households following the full rollout of marriage equality across the United States. For gay men especially, results revealed an increase in both becoming married and having significantly improved health care access.
"Not only did it increase their health insurance coverage, but it also increased their access to care," said Christopher Carpenter, LGBTQ+ Policy Lab Director, E. Bronson Ingram Chair, and professor of economics. "Insurance coverage is not enough. It's good, but it doesn't get you all the way there. What you need is for people to use that coverage to access physicians. When legal same-sex marriage came to an individuals' state, what we found is that individuals in same-sex households were more likely to say that they sought care and had a doctor."
The study, conducted by Carpenter; Gilbert Gonzales, lab associate director and assistant professor of medicine, health, and society; Tara McKay, lab associate director and assistant professor of medicine, health, and policy; and Samuel Eppink, then a College of Arts and Science graduate student in economics, was published in the Journal of Policy and Management. The findings build upon earlier work done by Gonzales showing that once same-sex marriage became legal in the state of New York, significant increases in health insurance coverage for same-sex couples followed.
