Generation vexed: Age-cohort differences in employer-sponsored health insurance coverage

Health Affairs

Volumn 20, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 184-191

  Glied, Sherry ^a   Stabile, Mark ^b  

^a Mailman School of Public Health ^*  (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADULT; AGE DISTRIBUTION; ARTICLE; EDUCATIONAL STATUS; EPIDEMIOLOGY; HEALTH INSURANCE; HUMAN; INSURANCE; MIDDLE AGED; REGRESSION ANALYSIS; SALARY AND FRINGE BENEFIT; STATISTICS; UNITED STATES;

ADULT; AGE DISTRIBUTION; EDUCATIONAL STATUS; HEALTH BENEFIT PLANS, EMPLOYEE; HEALTH CARE SURVEYS; HUMANS; INSURANCE COVERAGE; MIDDLE AGED; REGRESSION ANALYSIS; SALARIES AND FRINGE BENEFITS; UNITED STATES;

EID: 0035235578     PISSN: 02782715     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.20.1.184     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. G. Acs, "Explaining Trends in Health Insurance Coverage between 1988 and 1991," Inquiry 32, no. 1 (1995): 102-110; and D. Chollet, "Employer-Based Health Insurance in a Changing Work Force," Health Affairs (Spring 11994): 315-326.
2. G. Acs, "Explaining Trends in Health Insurance Coverage between 1988 and 1991," Inquiry 32, no. 1 (1995): 102-110; and D. Chollet, "Employer-Based Health Insurance in a Changing Work Force," Health Affairs (Spring 11994): 315-326.
3. R. Kronick and T. Gilmer, "Explaining the Decline in Health Insurance Coverage: 1979-1995," Health Affairs (Mar/Apr 1999): 30-47; S. Glied and M. Stabile, "Explaining the Decline in Insurance Coverage among Young Men," Inquiry 37, no. 3 (2000): 295-303; S. Long and M.S. Marquis, "The Uninsured Access Gap: Narrowing the Estimates," Inquiry 31, no. 4 (1994): 405-414; and P.P. Cooper and B.S. Schone, "More Offers, Fewer Takers for Employment-Based Health Insurance: 1987 and 1996," Health Affairs (Nov/Dec 1997): 142-149.
4. R. Kronick and T. Gilmer, "Explaining the Decline in Health Insurance Coverage: 1979-1995," Health Affairs (Mar/Apr 1999): 30-47; S. Glied and M. Stabile, "Explaining the Decline in Insurance Coverage among Young Men," Inquiry 37, no. 3 (2000): 295-303; S. Long and M.S. Marquis, "The Uninsured Access Gap: Narrowing the Estimates," Inquiry 31, no. 4 (1994): 405-414; and P.P. Cooper and B.S. Schone, "More Offers, Fewer Takers for Employment-Based Health Insurance: 1987 and 1996," Health Affairs (Nov/Dec 1997): 142-149.
5. R. Kronick and T. Gilmer, "Explaining the Decline in Health Insurance Coverage: 1979-1995," Health Affairs (Mar/Apr 1999): 30-47; S. Glied and M. Stabile, "Explaining the Decline in Insurance Coverage among Young Men," Inquiry 37, no. 3 (2000): 295-303; S. Long and M.S. Marquis, "The Uninsured Access Gap: Narrowing the Estimates," Inquiry 31, no. 4 (1994): 405-414; and P.P. Cooper and B.S. Schone, "More Offers, Fewer Takers for Employment-Based Health Insurance: 1987 and 1996," Health Affairs (Nov/Dec 1997): 142-149.
6. R. Kronick and T. Gilmer, "Explaining the Decline in Health Insurance Coverage: 1979-1995," Health Affairs (Mar/Apr 1999): 30-47; S. Glied and M. Stabile, "Explaining the Decline in Insurance Coverage among Young Men," Inquiry 37, no. 3 (2000): 295-303; S. Long and M.S. Marquis, "The Uninsured Access Gap: Narrowing the Estimates," Inquiry 31, no. 4 (1994): 405-414; and P.P. Cooper and B.S. Schone, "More Offers, Fewer Takers for Employment-Based Health Insurance: 1987 and 1996," Health Affairs (Nov/Dec 1997): 142-149.
7. F. Welch, "Effects of Cohort Size on Earnings: The Baby Boom Babies' Financial Bust," Journal of Political Economy 87, no. 5 (1979): S65-S98; F. Levy, The New Dollars and Dreams (New York: Russell Sage, 1998); and D. Card and T. Lemieux, "Can Falling Supply Explain the Rising Return to College for Younger Men? A Cohort-Based Analysis," NBER Working Paper no. 7655 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, April 2000).
8. F. Welch, "Effects of Cohort Size on Earnings: The Baby Boom Babies' Financial Bust," Journal of Political Economy 87, no. 5 (1979): S65-S98; F. Levy, The New Dollars and Dreams (New York: Russell Sage, 1998); and D. Card and T. Lemieux, "Can Falling Supply Explain the Rising Return to College for Younger Men? A Cohort-Based Analysis," NBER Working Paper no. 7655 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, April 2000).
9. F. Welch, "Effects of Cohort Size on Earnings: The Baby Boom Babies' Financial Bust," Journal of Political Economy 87, no. 5 (1979): S65-S98; F. Levy, The New Dollars and Dreams (New York: Russell Sage, 1998); and D. Card and T. Lemieux, "Can Falling Supply Explain the Rising Return to College for Younger Men? A Cohort-Based Analysis," NBER Working Paper no. 7655 (Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research, April 2000).
10. We use uniform CPS files produced by Unicon and include only the outgoing rotation groups (so as to include each individual only once).
11. Glied and Stabile, "Explaining the Decline."
12. We compute weekly wages in the CPS by dividing annual wage and salary income by weeks worked in the prior year. We omit all observations with estimated wages below $50 per week.
13. Using an alternative base age does not affect the relative shape of the relationship.
14. We selected 1988 simply because it is the midpoint and would yield the maximum number of observations to identify the trend. Our specification is nearly fully saturated, and we need many observations to identify each coefficient.
15. The F-test for inclusion of the interaction terms between the post-1988 dummy variable and the age effects is significant at p < .008.
16. In 1995 the order of CPS questions changed in a way that may have increased the count of persons with employer-sponsored health insurance.
17. The effects of the current year on changes in employer-sponsored health coverage are not statistically significant with the exception of 1993.
18. Council of Economic Advisers, Economic Report of the President (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1999).
19. Kronick and Gilmer, "Explaining the Decline."
20. Levy, The New Dollars and Dreams..
21. K. Blackburn et al., "The Declining Economic Position of Less-Skilled American Men," in A Future of Lousy Jobs? The Changing Structure of U.S. Wages, ed. G. Burtless (Washington: Brookings Institution, 1990), 31-67.
22. S. Glied and M. Stabile, "Covering Older Americans: Forecast for the Next Decade," Health Affairs (Jan/Feb 1999): 208-213.
23. For a discussion of changes in public coverage over this period, see L. Ku and B. Garrett, "How Welfare Reform and Economic Factors Affected Medicaid Participation: 1984-96," Assessing the New Federalism Discussion Paper 00-01 (Washington: Urban Institute, 2000).