Health Insurance and Less Skilled Workers

51 Pages Posted: 10 Feb 2000 Last revised: 5 Jun 2022

See all articles by Janet Currie

Janet Currie

Princeton University; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Aaron Yelowitz

University of Kentucky - Department of Economics

Date Written: August 1999

Abstract

We begin this research with the belief that low and declining levels of private-employer sponsored health insurance were a continuing problem, especially among less skilled workers. Our analysis, however, paints a more complex picture. Using data from the March CPS, the SIP, and CPS benefits surveys, we find that while many less skilled workers remain uncovered, the decline in private employer-sponsored health insurance coverage has slowed recently and may even have reversed. Neither crowdout nor a deterioration in the quality of jobs available to the less skilled seems likely to fully explain these time-series trends in health insurance coverage. A simple explanation that has been largely overlooked is that rising health care costs have driven much of the reduction in private insurance coverage, but it is more difficult to test this hypothesis given the available data.

Suggested Citation

Currie, Janet and Yelowitz, Aaron, Health Insurance and Less Skilled Workers (August 1999). NBER Working Paper No. w7291, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=198757

Janet Currie (Contact Author)

Princeton University ( email )

Princeton, NJ 08544-1021
United States
6092587393 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.princeton.edu/~jcurrie

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

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Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Aaron Yelowitz

University of Kentucky - Department of Economics ( email )

Lexington, KY 40506
United States

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