Title
The Effect of Medicare on the Younger Spouse
Project Dates
08/12/2013 - 12/24/2014
Description
A majority of couples in the United States take advantage of the ability to receive health insurance through a spouses’ employer. When older spouses become eligible for Medicare, their current employers often stop providing both them and their spouses with health insurance. The goal of this project was to study the effect of the older spouse becoming eligible for Medicare on the health insurance coverage and health care access of the younger spouse. The paper draws on 2005 to 2012 National Health Interview Survey data to implement a regression discontinuity design based on the age of the individual’s spouse. Doing this provided insights into how access to employer-sponsored health insurance affects health insurance choices and access to health care services.
Subject Area
LABOR MARKET ISSUES; Wages, health insurance and other benefits
Publications
The Effect of Medicare Eligibility on Spousal Insurance Coverage, Marcus Dillender, Karen Mulligan. Upjohn Institute Working Paper 15-216 (2015)
The Effect of Medicare Eligibility on Spousal Insurance Coverage, Marcus Dillender and Karen Mulligan. Health Economics (2015)