HEALTH INSURANCE TAX CREDITS, THE EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT, AND HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE OF SINGLE MOTHERS

Merve Cebi and Stephen Woodbury

Health Economics, 2014, vol. 23, issue 5, 501-515

Abstract: The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 enacted a refundable tax credit for low‐income working families who purchased health insurance coverage for their children. This health insurance tax credit (HITC) existed during tax years 1991, 1992, and 1993, and was then rescinded. A difference‐in‐differences estimator applied to Current Population Survey data suggests that adoption of the HITC, along with accompanying increases in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), was associated with a relative increase of about 4.7 percentage points in the private health insurance coverage of working single mothers with high school or less education. Also, a difference‐in‐difference‐in‐differences estimator, which attempts to net out the possible influence of the EITC increases but which requires strong assumptions, suggests that the HITC was responsible for about three‐quarters (3.6 percentage points) of the total increase. The latter estimate implies a price elasticity of health insurance take‐up of −0.42. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.2928

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Working Paper: Health Insurance Tax Credits, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Health Insurance Coverage of Single Mothers
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:23:y:2014:i:5:p:501-515

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