Health insurance take-up by the near-elderly.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To examine the effect of price on the demand for health insurance by early retirees between the ages of 55 and 64.

Data source

Administrative health plan enrollment data from a medium-sized U.S. employer.

Study design

The analysis takes advantage of a natural experiment created by the firm's health insurance contribution policy. The amount the firm contributes toward retiree health insurance coverage depends on when a person retired and her years of service at that date. As a result of this policy, there is considerable variation in out-of-pocket premiums faced by individuals in the data. This variation is independent of the nonprice attributes of the health insurance plans offered and is plausibly exogenous to individual characteristics that are likely to a

SUBMITTER: Buchmueller TC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1955307 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature