The purpose of this study is to present the importance of work-related cerebrovascular and heart disease from the viewpoint of expenses. Using the insurance benefit paid for the 4,300 cases, this study estimated the burden of insurance benefits spent on work-related cerebrovascular and heart disease. The number of cases with work-related cerebrovascular and heart disease per 100,000 insured wor...

Previous research on unemployment insurance (UI) has emphasized its disincentive effects for labor supply, but has largely ignored the insurance benefits provided by this public program. This paper directly assesses the consumption smoothing benefits of UI using two different sources of consumption data, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX). The fo...

This paper relates physical and mental health status to labor force participation and compares these relationships among self-report and proxy respondents. Previous research has conjectured that self-reports of health status may lead to an upward bias in the estimated effect of health on labor productivity because subjects who are out of the labor force may be more likely to understate their he...

The cost of expanding health insurance coverage increases when people who would otherwise purchase insurance obtain public coverage. This paper investigates the effects of one of the first efforts to target insurance benefits to the most needy, the 1982 medicare as secondary payer (MSP) provisions. We find strong evidence of low compliance with the MSP both in terms of medical bill payments (pa...

OBJECTIVE To produce cost estimates of proposed health insurance benefit mandates for the California legislature. DATA SOURCES The 2001 California Health Interview Survey, 2002 Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research and Education Trust California Employer Health Benefits Survey, Milliman Health Cost Guidelines, and ad hoc surveys of large health plans were used. STUDY DESIGN We developed ...

U NDER the Social Security Act, once an individual establishes his entitlement to monthly oldage and survivors insurance benefits, he continues to receive his benefit each and every month, unless any one of several specified events occurs -principally, his substantial employment or self-employment, death, attainment of age 18, marriage, or remarriage. Under conditions stated in the Act, these e...

OBJECTIVES To demonstrate a threat to validity in using claims-based risk tools with chronically ill, underinsured populations. STUDY DESIGN We tracked disease burden of high-risk pool beneficiaries with potentially disabling health conditions receiving enhanced health insurance benefits through a federally funded research demonstration. At baseline, beneficiaries paid high premiums and cost ...

Seeking to redress health disparities across income and race, many policy-makers mandate health insurance benefits, presuming that equalized benefits will help equalize use of beneficial health services. This paper tests that presumption by measuring health care use by a diverse population with comprehensive health insurance. Focusing on use of mental health care and pharmaceuticals, it finds t...

Sickness Absence and Local Benefit Cultures In many countries, sickness absence financed by generous insurance benefits has become an important concern in the policy debate. It turns out that there are strong variations in absence behavior between local geographical areas, and it has been difficult to explain these variations by observable socioeconomic factors. In this paper we investigate whe...

This Issue Brief provides background information on the employment-based health insurance system and its alternatives. The report discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the current employment-based health insurance system, the current tax treatment of health insurance, and the strength and weaknesses of recent proposals to introduce tax credits. It presents findings from the public opini...