How Does Family Health Care Use Respond to Economic Shocks? Realized and Anticipated Effects

Alan C. Monheit, Irina Grafova and Rizie Kumar

No 20348, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Families in constrained economic circumstances resulting from economic shocks face difficult choices regarding how best to spend their diminished resources. As families strive to preserve their living standards, decisions regarding health care use and its allocation among family members may become more discretionary and complex. Using two-year panel data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey for 2004 to 2011, we examine how the intra-family allocation of health care spending responds to realized and anticipated changes in family economic status. We focus on the share of total family health care spending allocated to children, and measure realized economic shocks based on changes in the family's income, employment, and health insurance status. We account for anticipated economic shocks by differentiating families by whether they are observed prior to, at the onset of, or during the Great Recession, or in the post-recession period. Our findings suggest that both types of economic shocks affect the share of family health care spending allocated to children, with findings more pronounced for single-mother families. We also find that realized economic shocks have a greater impact on children's spending share than the anticipated change in economic status associated with the Great Recession and its recovery.

JEL-codes: I12 I13 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: EH
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published as Alan C. Monheit & Irina B. Grafova & Rizie Kumar, 2020. "How does family health care use respond to economic shocks? realized and anticipated effects," Review of Economics of the Household, vol 18(2), pages 307-334.

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