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Borrowing To Cope With Adverse Health Events: Liquidity Constraints, Insurance Coverage, And Unsecured Debt

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  • Patryk Babiarz
  • Richard Widdows
  • Tansel Yilmazer

Abstract

This article uses data from the Health and Retirement Study for 1998–2010 to investigate whether households respond to the financial stress caused by health problems by increasing their unsecured debt. Results show both the probability of having unsecured debt and the amount of debt increase after an adverse health event among households with low financial assets, who are uninsured, or who have less generous health insurance. The effect of health problems on borrowing is caused by both medical expenditures and disruptions to the income stream. Unsecured debt seems to remain on some households' balance sheets for an extended period. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Patryk Babiarz & Richard Widdows & Tansel Yilmazer, 2013. "Borrowing To Cope With Adverse Health Events: Liquidity Constraints, Insurance Coverage, And Unsecured Debt," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(10), pages 1177-1198, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:22:y:2013:i:10:p:1177-1198
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.2877
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Patrick Richard & Regine Walker & Pierre Alexandre, 2018. "The burden of out of pocket costs and medical debt faced by households with chronic health conditions in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-13, June.
    3. Piotr Bialowolski & Jing Jian Xiao & Dorota Weziak-Bialowolska, 2024. "Do All Savings Matter Equally? Saving Types and Emotional Well-Being Among Older Adults: Evidence from Panel Data," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 88-105, March.
    4. Patrick Richard, 2016. "The Burden of Medical Debt Faced by Households with Dependent Children in the United States: Implications for the Affordable Care Act of 2010," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 212-225, June.
    5. Patrick Richard & Nilam Patel & Yuan-Chiao Lu & Regine Walker & Mustafa Younis, 2021. "The Financial Burden of Cancer on Families in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-14, April.
    6. Swensen, Isaac D. & Urban, Carly, 2023. "Literature Review on the Effect of Physical and Mental Health on Financial Well-Being," IZA Policy Papers 198, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Samaratunge, Ramanie & Kumara, Ajantha Sisira & Abeysekera, Lakmal, 2020. "Breaking the Perverse Health-debt Cycle in Sri Lanka: Policy Options," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 728-745.
    8. Joelle Abramowitz & Brett O'Hara & Darcy Steeg Morris, 2017. "Risking Life and Limb: Estimating a Measure of Medical Care Economic Risk and Considering its Implications," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 469-485, April.
    9. Nazim Habibov & Alena Auchynnikava & Rong Luo & Lida Fan, 2019. "Effects of the 2008 global financial crisis on population health," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 327-353, January.
    10. Maude Laberge & Kodjo‐Maawuegnigan Djiffa, 2023. "The effect of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion on consumer bankruptcies," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 1344-1361, October.
    11. Lawrence M. Berger & Jason N. Houle, 2019. "Rising Household Debt and Children’s Socioemotional Well-being Trajectories," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1273-1301, August.
    12. Radion Svynarenko & Qun Zhang & Hyungsoo Kim, 2019. "The Financial Burden of Cancer: Financial Ratio Analysis," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 165-179, June.
    13. Pak, Tae-Young & Kim, GwanSeon, 2017. "The impact of Medicare Part D on cognitive functioning at older ages," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 118-126.
    14. Yilmazer, Tansel & Babiarz, Patryk & Liu, Fen, 2015. "The impact of diminished housing wealth on health in the United States: Evidence from the Great Recession," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 234-241.
    15. Irene Y.H. Ng & Jian Qi Tan, 2021. "Economic distress and health: A fixed effects analysis of low‐income persons in Singapore," International Journal of Social Welfare, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 17-29, January.
    16. Patryk Babiarz & Cliff Robb, 2014. "Financial Literacy and Emergency Saving," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 40-50, March.
    17. Patryk Babiarz & Tansel Yilmazer, 2017. "The impact of adverse health events on consumption: Understanding the mediating effect of income transfers, wealth, and health insurance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1743-1758, December.

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