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Health insurance and retirement of married couples
Author(s) -
Blau David M.,
Gilleskie Donna B.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of applied econometrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.878
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1099-1255
pISSN - 0883-7252
DOI - 10.1002/jae.921
Subject(s) - health insurance , actuarial science , group insurance , demographic economics , insurance policy , economics , business , income protection insurance , general insurance , health care , economic growth
Abstract Most health insurance in the USA is provided by employers until eligibility for public health insurance (Medicare) begins at age 65. Retiring before 65 exposes workers who lack retiree health insurance coverage to the risk of catastrophic medical expenditure. We solve and estimate a dynamic model of the employment behavior of older married couples that includes risky medical expenditure and health insurance. Parameter estimates imply that the risk‐reducing feature of health insurance can account for about half of the observed association between retiree health insurance and employment for married men, but can account for only one tenth of the much larger observed association for married women. Policy simulations imply very small effects on employment of changing the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 67. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.