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The Self-Employed are Less Likely to Have Health Insurance Than Wage Earners. So What?

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  • Craig William Perry
  • Harvey S. Rosen

Abstract

There is considerable public policy concern over the relatively low rates of health insurance coverage among the self-employed in the United States. Presumably, the reason for the concern is that their low rates of insurance lead to worse health outcomes. We use data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey conducted in 1996 to analyze how the self-employed and wage-earners differ with respect to insurance coverage and health status. Using a variety of ways to measure health status, we find that the relative lack of health insurance among the self-employed does not affect their health. For virtually every subjective and objective measure of health status, the self-employed and wage earners are statistically indistinguishable from each other. Further, we present some evidence that this phenomenon is not due to the fact that individuals who select into self-employment are healthier than wage-earners, ceteris paribus. Thus, the public policy concern with the relative lack of health insurance among the self-employed may be somewhat misplaced.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 8316.

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Date of creation: Jun 2001
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8316

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Cited by:
  1. Craig William Perry & Harvey S. Rosen, 2001. "Insurance and the Utilization of Medical Services Among the Self-Employed," NBER Working Papers 8490, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Joni Hersch, 2003. "A Workers' Lobby to Provide Portable Benefits," NBER Working Papers 9591, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. David Zimmer, 2009. "Insurance Arrangements Among Married Couples: Analysis of Benefit Substitution and Compensating Differentials," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 428-439, December.
  4. Kuo-Liang Chang & George Langelett & Andrew Waugh, 2011. "Health, Health Insurance, and Decision to Exit from Farming," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 356-372, June.
  5. Avi Dor & Joseph Sudano & David W. Baker, 2003. "The Effects of Private Insurance on Measures of Health: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study," NBER Working Papers 9774, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. David Zimmer, 2010. "Health Insurance and Health Care Demand Among the Self-employed," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 1-19, March.

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