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The Role of Retiree Health Insurance in the Early Retirement of Public Sector Employees

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  • John B. Shoven
  • Sita Slavov

Abstract

Most private sector workers with employer-provided health insurance have a strong incentive to continue working until Medicare eligibility in order to maintain group health coverage. However, most government employees have access to retiree health coverage, which allows them access to group health coverage even if they retire before Medicare eligibility. We study the impact of retiree health coverage on the probability of stopping work among public sector workers between the ages of 55 and 64. We find that, for state and local government employees, retiree health coverage raises the probability of stopping work by 5.1 percentage points (around 28 percent) between ages 60 and 64. However, we find no evidence that retiree health coverage influences state and local employees' decisions to stop work at ages 55-59, or that such coverage has an effect on the probability of stopping work for federal and military employees.

Suggested Citation

  • John B. Shoven & Sita Slavov, 2013. "The Role of Retiree Health Insurance in the Early Retirement of Public Sector Employees," NBER Working Papers 19563, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:19563
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Erkmen Giray Aslim, 2019. "The Relationship Between Health Insurance and Early Retirement: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 112-140, January.
    2. Papke, Leslie E., 2019. "Retirement choices by state and local public sector employees: the role of eligibility and financial incentives," Journal of Pension Economics and Finance, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 515-528, October.
    3. Joshua Congdon-Hohman, 2018. "Retirement Reversals and Health Insurance," Public Finance Review, , vol. 46(4), pages 583-608, July.
    4. Clark, Robert L. & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2014. "How does retiree health insurance influence public sector employee saving?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 109-118.
    5. Fitzpatrick, Maria D., 2014. "Retiree health insurance for public school employees: Does it affect retirement?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 88-98.
    6. Mark Duggan & Gopi Shah Goda & Emilie Jackson, 2019. "The Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Insurance Coverage and Labor Market Outcomes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 72(2), pages 261-322, June.
    7. Helen Levy & Thomas Buchmueller & Sayeh Nikpay, 2015. "The Effect of Health Reform on Retirement," Working Papers wp329, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    8. Clark, Robert L. & Morrill, Melinda Sandler & Vanderweide, David, 2014. "The effects of retiree health insurance plan characteristics on retirees’ choice and employers’ costs," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 119-129.
    9. Helen Levy & Thomas Buchmueller & Sayeh Nikpay, 2018. "Is the Affordable Care Act Affecting Retirement Yet?," Working Papers wp393, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    10. Padmaja Ayyagari, 2019. "Health Insurance and Early Retirement Plans: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 533-560, Fall.
    11. Byron Lutz & Louise Sheiner, 2014. "The Fiscal Stress Arising from State and Local Retiree Health Obligations," NBER Working Papers 19779, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Quinby, Laura D. & Wettstein, Gal, 2021. "Do deferred benefit cuts for current employees increase separation?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    13. Laura D. Quinby, 2020. "Do Deferred Retirement Benefits Retain Government Employees?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 469-509, March.
    14. Robert Clark & Melinda Morrill, 2013. "Increasing Work Life: The Role Of The Employer," Discussion Papers 13-016, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    15. Kevin Wood, 2019. "Health insurance reform and retirement: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(12), pages 1462-1475, December.
    16. Sezen O. Onal, 2023. "Does the ACA Medicaid Expansion Encourage Labor Market Exits of Older Workers?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 56-93, June.
    17. Xiaoxue Li, 2020. "Quality information disclosure and health insurance demand: evidence from VA hospital report cards," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 177-199, June.
    18. Morrill, Melinda Sandler, 2014. "Active and retired public employees’ health insurance: Potential data sources," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 147-152.
    19. Bocong Yuan & Jiachun Fang & Jiannan Li & Fei Peng, 2022. "Chronic patients as retirement-aged workers: the impact of employment-based health insurance and chronic conditions on health-related working capacity and late-life career participation," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1351-1362, December.
    20. Leslie E. Papke, 2021. "Underfunded Public Sector Pension Plans, Social Security Participation, and the Retirement Decisions of Public Employees," Working Papers wp420, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets

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