The role of marriage in explaining racial and ethnic disparities in access to health care for men in the US

Yuriy Pylypchuk () and James B. Kirby ()
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Yuriy Pylypchuk: Social and Scientific Systems, Inc.
James B. Kirby: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Review of Economics of the Household, 2017, vol. 15, issue 3, No 5, 807-832

Abstract: Abstract Reducing disparities in access to health care is a long-standing objective of the federal government. Building on research showing that marriage can provide important resources for obtaining needed health care, we suggest that racial and ethnic differences in marriage could explain persistent disparities in access. Using data from MEPS and NLSY we investigate the association between marriage and access to health care among men, and estimate the extent to which racial and ethnic differences in both the returns to marriage and marital rates explain differences in access and preventive service use. We find that marriage accounts for up to 24 % of racial and ethnic differences in access and preventive use. The returns to marriage for whites and blacks, however, are greater than that for Hispanics. We suggest that differences in spousal characteristics such as education and income could explain why whites and blacks benefit from marriage more than Hispanics. We find support for this hypothesis: differences in spousal characteristics account for up to 37 % of the gap in access and preventive use among married adults.

Keywords: Race; Marriage; Disparities; Access (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11150-015-9300-2

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