Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mia/wpaper/0911.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tax Incentives as a Solution to the Uninsured: Evidence from the Self-Employed

Author

Listed:
  • Gulcin Gumus

    (Department of Health Policy and Management, Department of Economics, Florida International University, and IZA, Bonn, Germany)

  • Tracy Regan

    (Department of Economics, University of Miami)

Abstract
Between 1996 and 2003, a series of amendments were made to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that gradually increased the tax deduction for health insurance purchases by the self-employed from 25 to 100 percent. We study how these changes have influenced the likelihood that a self-employed person has health insurance coverage as the policy holder. The Current Population Survey is used to construct a data set corresponding to 1995-2005. Both the difference-in-difference and price elasticity of demand estimates suggest that the series of tax deductions did not provide sufficient incentives for the self-employed to obtain health insurance coverage.

Suggested Citation

  • Gulcin Gumus & Tracy Regan, 2006. "Tax Incentives as a Solution to the Uninsured: Evidence from the Self-Employed," Working Papers 0911, University of Miami, Department of Economics, revised Oct 2008.
    • Handle: RePEc:mia:wpaper:0911
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.herbert.miami.edu/_assets/files/repec/wp2009-11-insurance-2008.pdf
    File Function: First Version, 2006; Revised version, 2008
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Melissa A. Thomasson, 2003. "The Importance of Group Coverage: How Tax Policy Shaped U.S. Health Insurance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1373-1384, September.
    2. Gruber, Jonathan & Madrian, Brigitte C., 1997. "Employment separation and health insurance coverage," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 349-382, December.
    3. David M. Cutler, 2003. "Employee Costs and the Decline in Health Insurance Coverage," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, Volume 6, pages 27-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Thomas C. Buchmueller & Robert G. Valletta, 1996. "The Effects of Employer-Provided Health Insurance on Worker Mobility," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 49(3), pages 439-455, April.
    5. Marquis, M. Susan & Long, Stephen H., 1995. "Worker demand for health insurance in the non-group market," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 47-63, May.
    6. repec:pri:cepsud:85rosen is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Stephen G. Donald & Kevin Lang, 2007. "Inference with Difference-in-Differences and Other Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(2), pages 221-233, May.
    8. Brigitte C. Madrian, 1994. "Employment-Based Health Insurance and Job Mobility: Is there Evidence of Job-Lock?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 27-54.
    9. Douglas Holtz-Eakin & Harvey S. Rosen (ed.), 2004. "Public Policy and the Economics of Entrepreneurship," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262083299, April.
    10. Jean Marie Abraham & William B. Vogt & Martin Gaynor, 2002. "Household Demand for Employer-Based Health Insurance," NBER Working Papers 9144, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Jonathan Gruber & James M. Poterba, 1993. "Tax Incentives and the Decision to Purchase Health Insurance: Evidence from the Self-Employed," NBER Working Papers 4435, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Donna B. Gilleskie & Byron F. Lutz, 2002. "The Impact of Employer-Provided Health Insurance on Dynamic Employment Transitions," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(1), pages 129-162.
    13. Jonathan Gruber & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2002. "Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Job Mobility: A Critical Review of the Literature," JCPR Working Papers 255, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    14. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Penrod, John R. & Rosen, Harvey S., 1996. "Health insurance and the supply of entrepreneurs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1-2), pages 209-235, October.
    15. Brigitte C. Madrian & Lars John Lefgren, 1999. "A Note on Longitudinally Matching Current Population Survey (CPS) Respondents," NBER Technical Working Papers 0247, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Daniel Feenberg & Elisabeth Coutts, 1993. "An introduction to the TAXSIM model," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(1), pages 189-194.
    17. Ai, Chunrong & Norton, Edward C., 2003. "Interaction terms in logit and probit models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 123-129, July.
    18. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    19. Jonathan Gruber & James Poterba, 1994. "Tax Incentives and the Decision to Purchase Health Insurance: Evidence from the Self-Employed," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 701-733.
    20. V. Joseph Hotz & John Karl Scholz, 2006. "Examining the Effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit on the Labor Market Participation of Families on Welfare," NBER Working Papers 11968, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Jonathan Gruber, 2005. "Tax Policy for Health Insurance," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 19, pages 39-64, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Jonathan Meer & Harvey S. Rosen, 2002. "Insurance, Health, and the Utilization of Medical Services," Working Papers 117, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    23. Royalty, Anne Beeson & Abraham, Jean M., 2006. "Health insurance and labor market outcomes: Joint decision-making within households," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(8-9), pages 1561-1577, September.
    24. Helen Levy, 2006. "Health Insurance and the Wage Gap," NBER Working Papers 11975, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Thomasson, Melissa A., 2002. "From Sickness to Health: The Twentieth-Century Development of U.S. Health Insurance," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 233-253, July.
    26. Helen Levy, 1998. "Who Pays for Health Insurance? Employee Contributions to Health Insurance Premiums," Working Papers 777, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    27. Brigitte C. Madrian, 2005. "The U.S. health care system and labor markets," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, vol. 50(Jun), pages 137-163.
    28. Jonathan Meer & Harvey S. Rosen, 2002. "Insurance, Health, and the Utilization of Medical Services," Working Papers 117, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    29. Gruber, Jonathan & McKnight, Robin, 2003. "Why did employee health insurance contributions rise?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 1085-1104, November.
    30. Meer, Jonathan & Rosen, Harvey S., 2004. "Insurance and the utilization of medical services," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(9), pages 1623-1632, May.
    31. Cutler David M., 2003. "Employee Costs and the Decline in Health Insurance Coverage," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-29, January.
    32. Finkelstein, Amy, 2002. "The effect of tax subsidies to employer-provided supplementary health insurance: evidence from Canada," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(3), pages 305-339, June.
    33. Heim, Bradley T. & Lurie, Ithai Z., 2009. "Do increased premium subsidies affect how much health insurance is purchased? Evidence from the self-employed," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1197-1210, December.
    34. Jonathan Gruber & Brigitte C. Madrian, 1994. "Health Insurance and Job Mobility: The Effects of Public Policy on Job-Lock," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 48(1), pages 86-102, October.
    35. Moulton, Brent R, 1990. "An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-338, May.
    36. Gruber, Jonathan & Washington, Ebonya, 2005. "Subsidies to employee health insurance premiums and the health insurance market," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 253-276, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fossen, Frank M. & König, Johannes, 2015. "Public health insurance and entry into self-employment," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112934, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Gulcin Gumus & Tracy Regan, 2007. "Self-Employment and the Role of Health Insurance," Working Papers 0910, University of Miami, Department of Economics.
    3. Gumus, Gulcin & Regan, Tracy L., 2015. "Self-employment and the role of health insurance in the U.S," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 357-374.
    4. Frank M. Fossen & Johannes König, 2017. "Public health insurance, individual health, and entry into self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 647-669, October.
    5. Velamuri, Malathi, 2009. "Taxes, Health Insurance and Women’s Self-Employment," MPRA Paper 15731, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Heim, Bradley T. & Lurie, Ithai Z., 2010. "The effect of self-employed health insurance subsidies on self-employment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 995-1007, December.
    7. Fairlie, Robert W. & Kapur, Kanika & Gates, Susan, 2011. "Is employer-based health insurance a barrier to entrepreneurship?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 146-162, January.
    8. Yu-Chen Kuo & Jia-Huey Lin, 2020. "Picking the lock: how universal healthcare programs influence entrepreneurial activities," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 3-24, January.
    9. Heim, Bradley T. & Lurie, Ithai Z., 2009. "Do increased premium subsidies affect how much health insurance is purchased? Evidence from the self-employed," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 1197-1210, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gulcin Gumus & Tracy Regan, 2007. "Self-Employment and the Role of Health Insurance," Working Papers 0910, University of Miami, Department of Economics.
    2. Gumus, Gulcin & Regan, Tracy L., 2015. "Self-employment and the role of health insurance in the U.S," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 357-374.
    3. Velamuri, Malathi, 2009. "Taxes, Health Insurance and Women’s Self-Employment," MPRA Paper 15731, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ines Läufer, 2014. "Das Krankenversicherungssystem in den USA: Bestimmungsparameter des Angebots und der Ausgestaltungformen von Arbeitgeber-Gruppenversicherungen," Otto-Wolff-Institut Discussion Paper Series 03/2014, Otto-Wolff-Institut für Wirtschaftsordnung, Köln, Deutschland.
    5. Brigitte C. Madrian, 2005. "The U.S. health care system and labor markets," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, vol. 50(Jun), pages 137-163.
    6. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3309-3416 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Li, Yajuan & Palma, Marco A. & Towne, Samuel, 2017. "Does Health Insurance Provision Improve Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship? Evidence from State Insurance Mandates," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258399, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    8. Thomas M. Selden, 2009. "The Impact of Increased Tax Subsidies on the Insurance Coverage of Self-Employed Families: Evidence from the 1996–2004 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(1).
    9. Yu-Chen Kuo & Jia-Huey Lin, 2020. "Picking the lock: how universal healthcare programs influence entrepreneurial activities," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 3-24, January.
    10. Fossen, Frank M. & König, Johannes, 2015. "Public health insurance and entry into self-employment," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112934, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    11. Heim, Bradley T. & Lurie, Ithai Z., 2010. "The effect of self-employed health insurance subsidies on self-employment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(11-12), pages 995-1007, December.
    12. Fairlie, Robert W. & Kapur, Kanika & Gates, Susan, 2011. "Is employer-based health insurance a barrier to entrepreneurship?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 146-162, January.
    13. David Zimmer, 2010. "Health Insurance and Health Care Demand Among the Self-employed," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 1-19, March.
    14. Sayeh S. Nikpay, 2020. "Entrepreneurship And Job Lock: The Interaction Between Tax Subsidies And Health Insurance Regulations," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 38(1), pages 30-47, January.
    15. Krueger, Alan B. & Kuziemko, Ilyana, 2013. "The demand for health insurance among uninsured Americans: Results of a survey experiment and implications for policy," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 780-793.
    16. Bansak, Cynthia & Raphael, Steven, 2005. "The State Health Insurance Program and Job Mobility: Identifying Job Lock among Working Parents in Near-Poor Households," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt87n5j524, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    17. Jonathan Gruber & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2002. "Health Insurance, Labor Supply, and Job Mobility: A Critical Review of the Literature," JCPR Working Papers 255, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    18. James Bailey, 2017. "Health insurance and the supply of entrepreneurs: new evidence from the affordable care act," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 627-646, October.
    19. Frank M. Fossen & Johannes König, 2017. "Public health insurance, individual health, and entry into self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 647-669, October.
    20. David M. Zimmer, 2022. "Did subsidies included in the 2009 Stimulus Package encourage enrolment in COBRA?," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(4), pages 405-419, December.
    21. Alison J. Wellington, 2001. "Health Insurance Coverage And Entrepreneurship," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 19(4), pages 465-478, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health insurance; self-employment; elasticity; CPS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mia:wpaper:0911. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Daniela Valdivia (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/demiaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.