Does Chronic Illness Affect the Adequacy of Health Insurance Coverage?

Kevin T. Stroupe, Eleanor D. Kinney and Thomas Kniesner

No 20, Center for Policy Research Working Papers from Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

Abstract: Although chronically ill individuals need protection against high medical expenses, they often have difficulty obtaining adequate insurance coverage due to medical underwriting practices used to classify and price risks and to define and limit coverage for individuals and groups. Using data from healthy and chronically ill individuals in Indiana, we found that illness decreased the probability of having adequate insurance, particularly among single individuals. Chronic illness decreased the probability of having adequate coverage by about 10 percentage points among all individuals and by about 25 percentage points among single individuals. Pre-existing condition exclusions were a major source of inadequate insurance. Our results emphasize the impact of enforcing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1997, which limits pre-existing condition exclusions.

JEL-codes: I11 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2000-03
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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