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Family formation and demand for health insurance

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  • Doiron, Denise
  • Kettlewell, Nathan

Abstract

We study how demand for health insurance responds to family formation using a unique panel of young Australian women. Our data allow us to simultaneously control for the influence of state dependence and unobserved heterogeneity as well as detailed information on children and child aspirations. We fi nd evidence that women purchase insurance in preparation for pregnancy but then transition out of insurance once they have fi nished family building. Children have a large, negative impact on demand for insurance, although this effect is smaller for those on higher incomes. We also fi nd that state dependence has a large impact on insurance demand. Our results are robust to a variety of alternative modelling strategies.

Suggested Citation

  • Doiron, Denise & Kettlewell, Nathan, 2018. "Family formation and demand for health insurance," Working Papers 2018-08, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:syd:wpaper:2018-08
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    Cited by:

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    3. Ha Trong Nguyen & Huong Thu Le & Luke Connelly & Francis Mitrou, 2023. "Accuracy of self‐reported private health insurance coverage," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(12), pages 2709-2729, December.
    4. Jing Jian Xiao & Chunsheng Tao, 2020. "Consumer finance/household finance: the definition and scope," China Finance Review International, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, June.
    5. Kabir Dasgupta & Keshar Ghimire & Alexander Plum, 2022. "Impact of state children’s health insurance program on fertility of immigrant women," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(17), pages 1631-1643, October.
    6. Yu, Serena & Fiebig, Denzil G. & Viney, Rosalie & Scarf, Vanessa & Homer, Caroline, 2022. "Private provider incentives in health care: The case of caesarean births," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    7. Nathan Kettlewell & Yuting Zhang, 2024. "Age penalties and take‐up of private health insurance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 636-651, April.
    8. Kettlewell, Nathan, 2020. "Subjective Expectations for Health Service Use and Consequences for Health Insurance Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 13445, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Buchmueller, Thomas C. & Cheng, Terence C. & Pham, Ngoc T.A. & Staub, Kevin E., 2021. "The effect of income-based mandates on the demand for private hospital insurance and its dynamics," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

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