Public Health Insurance and Household Portfolio Choices: Unraveling Financial “Side Effects” of Medicare

Marco Angrisani, Vincenzo Atella and Marianna Brunetti

No 382, CEIS Research Paper from Tor Vergata University, CEIS

Abstract: Large, unpredictable and not fully insurable health-care costs represent a source of background risk that might deter households’ financial risk taking. Using panel data from the Health and Retirement Study and fixed-effects estimation, we test whether universal health insurance, like Medicare for over-65 Americans, shields against this risk promoting stockholding. Households in poor health, who face a higher risk of medical expenses, are less likely to hold stocks than their healthier counterparts. Yet, this gap is mostly eliminated by Medicare eligibility. Notably, the offsetting is primarily experienced by households without private health insurance over the observation period.

Keywords: Household portfolios; Health status; Medicare; Health insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 G11 I13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2016-05-31, Revised 2017-02-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hea and nep-ias
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: Public health insurance and household portfolio Choices: Unravelling financial “Side Effects” of Medicare (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:382

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