The Effect of Medicare Eligibility on Spousal Insurance Coverage

Marcus Dillender and Karen Mulligan

Health Economics, 2016, vol. 25, issue 5, 591-605

Abstract: A majority of married couples in the USA take advantage of the fact that employers often provide health insurance coverage to spouses. When older spouses become eligible for Medicare, however, many of them can no longer provide their younger spouses with coverage. In this paper, we study how spousal eligibility for Medicare affects the health insurance and health care access of younger spouses. We find that spousal eligibility for Medicare results in younger spouses no longer having employers pay for their insurance and being less likely to have employer‐sponsored coverage. Instead, younger spouses switch to privately purchased coverage, which tends to be worse than what they had before their spouses became eligible for Medicare. We also find suggestive evidence that younger spouses are less likely to use health care services after their older spouses become eligible for Medicare. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2016
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https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3175

Related works:
Working Paper: The Effect of Medicare Eligibility on Spousal Insurance Coverage (2015)
Working Paper: The Effect of Medicare Eligibility on Spousal Insurance Coverage
Working Paper: The Effect of Medicare Eligibility on Spousal Insurance Coverage
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:25:y:2016:i:5:p:591-605

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