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

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Author Info
Craig William Perry
Harvey S. Rosen

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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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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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I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2000. "Are Recessions Good For Your Health?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 115(2), pages 617-650, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Angus Deaton & Christina Paxson, 1999. "Mortality, Education, Income, and Inequality among American Cohorts," NBER Working Papers 7140, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Gruber, Jonathan & Poterba, James, 1994. "Tax Incentives and the Decision to Purchase Health Insurance: Evidence from the Self-Employed," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 109(3), pages 701-33, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Penrod, John R. & Rosen, Harvey S., 1996. "Health insurance and the supply of entrepreneurs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1-2), pages 209-235, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Coate, Stephen, 1995. "Altruism, the Samaritan's Dilemma, and Government Transfer Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(1), pages 46-57, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Meer, Jonathan & Miller, Douglas L. & Rosen, Harvey S., 2003. "Exploring the health-wealth nexus," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 713-730, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Robert Kaestner & Theodore Joyce & Andrew Racine, 1999. "Does Publicly Provided Health Insurance Improve the Health of Low-Income Children in the United States," NBER Working Papers 6887, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Ettner, Susan L., 1996. "New evidence on the relationship between income and health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 67-85, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. James P. Smith, 1999. "Healthy Bodies and Thick Wallets: The Dual Relation between Health and Economic Status," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 145-166, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Melissa A. Thomasson, 2000. "The Importance of Group Coverage: How Tax Policy Shaped U.S. Health Insurance," NBER Working Papers 7543, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. Victor R. Fuchs, 1998. "Health, Government, and Irving Fisher," NBER Working Papers 6710, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Barton H. Hamilton, 2000. "Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns to Self-Employment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(3), pages 604-631, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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