ANALYZING FIRM SIZE DIFFERENCES IN INSURANCE COVERAGE

这项研究的目的是确定以下重要因素 与大约3000万美国人缺乏保险有关 没有医疗保险的人。许多没有保险的人受雇于小型企业 律所。一些提案试图通过改变 小额群体健康保险的可获得性和可负担性 律所。这种方法的支持者认为，如果保险价格是 对于小公司和大公司来说，覆盖率将是 很相似。虽然保险市场确实存在价格差异，但 导致小企业覆盖率较低的问题，在那里 是否有越来越多的证据表明，其他因素对观察到的 覆盖范围的差异(例如，不同类型的员工)。因此，一项分析 缺乏医疗保险覆盖范围的公司规模差异是 对了解问题和提议的可能影响至关重要 解决这个问题的策略。 许多研究和政策建议仅关注公司规模，因为 医疗保险覆盖面的关键决定因素。这些研究和 提案忽略了一个事实，即受雇于小公司的个人可能 与大公司雇佣的人不同，这些差异 可能会影响他们对医疗保险的需求。 使用1987年全国医疗费用调查的数据，我将：1) 考察公司规模、个人特征、 与工作有关的因素和保险覆盖面；以及2)分解 大小公司员工之间的医疗保险覆盖范围为 可归因于员工特征、公司规模效应和 工人和企业规模因素的交互作用。 研究的结果将有助于澄清 对医疗保险覆盖面差距的不同解释 大小公司的雇员。这项研究应该会揭示 针对小企业的改革措施取得成功的可能性。

The purpose of this study is to identify the important factors that are associated with the lack of insurance for the roughly 30 million Americans who are medically uninsured. Many of the uninsured are employed by small firms. A number of proposals seek to ameliorate the problem by changing the availability and affordability of group health insurance for small firms. Proponents of this approach contend that if insurance prices were the same for small firms as for large firms, that coverage rates would be similar. Although price differentials do exist in the insurance market and contribute to the problem of lower coverage rates among small firms, there is growing evidence that other' factors contribute to the observed differences in coverage (e.g., heterogeneous workers). Thus, an analysis of firm size differentials in the lack of health insurance coverage is central to understanding the problem and the likely impact of proposed strategies to solve it. Many studies and policy proposals have focused on firm size alone as the critical determinant of health insurance coverage. These studies and proposals ignore the fact that individuals employed by small firms may be different from those employed by large firms, and that these differences may affect their demand for health insurance. Using data from the 1987 National Medical Expenditures Survey, I will: 1) examine the relationship among firm size, personal characteristics, work-related factors, and insurance coverage; and 2) decompose the gap in health insurance coverage between employees of large and small firms into the portions attributable to worker characteristics, firm size effects, and the interaction of worker and firm size factors. The results of the study will help clarify the relative importance of various explanations for the gap in health insurance coverage between employees of large and small firms. The study should shed light on the likelihood that reform measures aimed at small firms will succeed.