Retiree Health Benefits and Retirement

James Marton and Stephen Woodbury

No 06-128, Upjohn Working Papers from W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

Abstract: Employer-provided health benefit coverage for workers who retire before age 65 has fallen over the last decade. We examine a cohort of male workers from the Health and Retirement Survey to examine questions about the dynamics of retiree health benefits and the relationship between retiree health benefits and retirement behavior, which is important for the debate over increasing health coverage for older Americans without reducing work incentives. On dynamics, we find that between 1992 and 1996, 24 percent of full-time workers who had retiree health benefits lost their coverage, while 15 percent of full-time workers who lacked coverage gained it. Also, of the full-time employed men who were covered by retiree health benefits in 1992 and had retired by 1996, 3 percent were uninsured, and 15 percent were covered by health insurance other than employer-provided insurance. On the relationship between retiree health benefits and retirement, we find that workers with retiree benefits were 29 to 55 percent more likely to retire than those without. We also find that workers who are eligible for retiree health benefits tend to take advantage of them when they are relatively young.

Keywords: Marton; Woodbury; health insurance; employee benefits; retirement; elderly; employment; retiree health benefits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 J26 J32 J33 M52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ias and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Working Paper: Retiree Health Benefit Coverage and Retirement (2006)
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