|
|
| Home > Conferences & Events Home > Vulnerable Populations > Conference Highlights |
| |
Ann Arbor Research Conferences
Vulnerable Populations Research Conference
October 22, 2004
Ann Arbor, Michigan
The eight papers presented at the 2004 Vulnerable Populations conference resulted from a special ERIU solicitation focused on health insurance coverage and selected vulnerable populations—racial and ethnic minorities, and immigrants. One other paper that focuses on coverage and persons with chronic mental illness will be included in the July 2005 Annual ERIU Research Conference. These projects generally employ economic frameworks and methods to investigate the causes and consequences of disparities in health insurance coverage for these vulnerable groups.
|
| |
| Conference Highlights | Participant List | Papers Presented |
| |
Author |
Conference Paper |
Summary |
|
Dushi, Irena
Honig, Marjorie |
Offers or Take-up: Explaining Minorities’ Lower Health Insurance Coverage (PDF)
|
Coverage under employment-based health insurance has declined in recent years among full-time workers. Using data from the 1996 Panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), Dushi and Honig estimate offer and take-up probabilities on a sample of full-time workers. They find that race and ethnicity have significant effects on offer and take-up after controlling for a wide array of demographic and job characteristics. |
Project Summary |
| |
Haas, Jennifer
Swartz, Katherine |
The Effects of Worker, Firm, and Market Characteristics on Access to Employer Sponsored Health Insurance (PDF) |
Sixty-five percent of uninsured adults work and they account for 17 percent of the labor force. In order to understand how individual characteristics, the characteristics of the labor market, and the characteristics of the firm where an individual are employed are related to disparities in employer sponsored health insurance, Haas and Swartz evaluate data from the 1996 – 2000 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component and 2000 census data. They find that a worker’s own characteristics and the characteristics of the worker’s firm are more important than factors that describe the labor market in understanding whether a worker will have ESI. |
Project Summary |
| |
Hamilton, Darrick
Darrity, William
Goldsmith, Arthur |
Racial and Ethnic Composition of Firms and Disparities in Firm Provisions of Health Insurance Coverage (PDF) |
Many studies have explored the role of individual characteristics but we know much less about the role of firm-level characteristics in explaining coverage disparities for black, Hispanic, and immigrant groups. Hamilton, Goldsmith, and Darrity use data from the employer sample of the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality (MCSUI) to explore empirically whether the probability of providing health insurance to employees is lower for black firms, Hispanic firms, and ethnically-racially mixed firms than for comparable white firms. |
Project Summary |
| |
Lo Sasso, Anthony
Lurie, Ithai
Buchmueller, Thomas
Senesky, Sarah |
Immigrants and Employer-Provided Health Insurance (PDF) |
The last two decades have seen a tremendous increase in immigration to the U.S. with more immigrants coming to live in the U.S. during the 1990’s than in any other decade in the nation’s history. The authors investigate the factors underlying the lower rate of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage for foreign-born workers. They find that the gap between natives and non-citizens is mainly attributable to differences in the probability of working for a firm that offers insurance. Roughly two-thirds of this gap is explained by characteristics of the individual (e.g. education) and differences in the types of jobs they hold (e.g. non-union jobs in smaller firms). |
Project Summary |
| |
McGuire, Thomas
Alegria, Margerita
Cao, Zhun
Takeuchi, David
|
Health Insurance Coverage for Vulnerable Populations: Comparing Asians, Latinos, and Whites (PDF) |
Reliance on public insurance or being uninsured is more common among racial/ethnic minorities, particularly recent immigrants, as compared to white, non-immigrant Americans. The authors, using up-to-date survey data which focus on Latino and Asian populations, consider heterogeneity within vulnerable groups in minority status, immigrant status, and health profile. They find evidence confirming the presence of extensive differences in insurance coverage between whites and minorities. |
Project Summary |
| |
Smith, James
Goldman, Dana
Sood, Neeraj |
Immigrants, their Legal Status, and their Health Insurance |
While there are many studies on the subject of immigrants and insurance, none provide a detailed examination of the relative importance of legal status. The authors use the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey (LAFANS) to examine this issue. They find that socioeconomic factors explain much of the difference in coverage rates between the foreign-born and natives in Los Angeles county, with the notable exception of the undocumented population. |
Project Summary |
| |
Waidmann, Timothy
Garrett, Bowen
Hadley, Jack
|
Explaining Differences in Employer Sponsored Insurance Coverage by Race, Ethnicity and Immigrant Status (PDF) |
It is well understood that much of the reason why African-Americans, Hispanics, and immigrants have higher rates of uninsurance is because of differences in employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) coverage. Using the 1999 and 2002 rounds of the National Survey of America’s Families (NSAF), Waidman, Garrett, & Hadley identify the relative contributions of various factors in explaining gross differences in coverage by race, ethnicity, immigrant, and citizenship status. |
Project Summary |
|
|
|
|
