Author: Haas, Jennifer ; Swartz, Katherine
Working Paper: The Effects of Worker, Firm, and Market Characteristics on Access to Employer Sponsored Health Insurance (PDF) ; October 2004
Abstract:
This paper analyzes how the characteristics
of a worker, the firm where the worker is employed,
and the local labor market are related to racial/ethnic
disparities in employer-sponsored health insurance
(ESI). The analyses are based on data from the annual
surveys of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household
Component (MEPS-HC) for 1996 through 2000, which
were merged with 2000 Census data about the characteristics
of each individual’s county of residence. Adults
18 to 64 years old who were employed at least part-time
for some portion of the year, and were not full-time
students, and described their race/ ethnicity as
white, African American or Latino were included in
this analysis (n = 26,813). The county of residence
was assumed to represent the local labor market in
which an individual searches for a job. Two models
were estimated to determine the relative effects
of an individual’s characteristics, the firm’s
characteristics, and the labor market’s characteristics
on disparities in ESI coverage. The first model is
of workers sorting to jobs that do or do not offer
ESI. The second reflects the full range of possible
outcomes: (1) ESI is offered and accepted, (2) ESI
is offered and declined but person is insured elsewhere,
(3) ESI is offered and declined and person is uninsured,
(4) ESI is not offered but person is insured elsewhere,
or (5) ESI is not offered and person is uninsured.
Approximately two-thirds of the workers in our sample
were offered ESI. African Americans and Latinos
were more likely than whites to be uninsured, either
because
they were not offered ESI or because they declined
offered insurance. However, race/ethnicity was
not associated with being offered ESI when characteristics
of the worker, firm, and labor market are controlled
for. Firm size and industry were significantly
associated
with all possible insurance outcomes. The percentage
of county residents who were foreign-born and the
percentage living below poverty were the only market
characteristics associated with not being offered
ESI and being uninsured. Individual characteristics
explained almost two-thirds of the risk of not
being offered ESI, while firm characteristics explained
almost another third of the risk, and local labor
market characteristics explained less than 1%. |
