%0 Journal Article %J American Economic Review %D 2016 %T The Economic Consequences of Hospital Admissions %A Dobkin, Carlos %A Finkelstein, Amy %A Raymond Kluender %A Matthew J Notowidigdo %K Financial burden %K Hospitalization %K Medical Expenses %X We use an event study approach to examine the economic consequences of hospital admissions for adults in two datasets: survey data from the Health and Retirement Study, and hospitalization data linked to credit reports. For non-elderly adults with health insurance, hospital admissions increase out-of-pocket medical spending, unpaid medical bills, and bankruptcy, and reduce earnings, income, access to credit, and consumer borrowing. The earnings decline is substantial compared to the out-of-pocket spending increase, and is minimally insured prior to age-eligibility for Social Security Retirement Income. Relative to the insured non-elderly, the uninsured non-elderly experience much larger increases in unpaid medical bills and bankruptcy rates following a hospital admission. Hospital admissions trigger fewer than 5 percent of all bankruptcies in our sample. %B American Economic Review %V 108 %P 308-352 %8 08/2016 %G eng %U https://www.nber.org/papers/w22288 %N 2 %! American Economic Review %R 10.1257/aer.20161038