TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cawley,John
AU  - Simon,Kosali I.
TI  - Health Insurance Coverage and the Macroeconomy
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10092
PY  - 2003
Y2  - November 2003
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10092
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10092.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
John Cawley
3M24 MVR Hall
Department of Policy Analysis and Management
and Department of Economics
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853
Tel: 607/255-0952
Fax: 607/255-4071
E-Mail: jhc38@cornell.edu

Kosali I. Simon
School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Indiana University
Rm 359
1315 East Tenth Street
Bloomington, IN 47405-1701
Tel: (812) 856-3850
E-Mail: simonkos@indiana.edu
AB  - The primary objective of this paper is to improve our understanding of the historic relationship between state and national macroeconomic climate and the health insurance coverage of Americans. The secondary objective of this paper is to use the historic findings to estimate how the number of uninsured Americans changed during the 2001 recession, and to estimate whether to date enough people have gained health insurance during the current recovery to offset the losses during the recession. We conclude that the macroeconomy (measured by state unemployment rate and real gross state product) is correlated with the probability of men's health insurance coverage and that this correlation is only partly explained by changes in men's employment status. Counter-cyclical health insurance programs such as Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program seem to ensure that the health insurance coverage of women and children is insulated from macroeconomic changes. We estimate that 851,000 Americans, the vast majority of whom were adult men, lost health insurance due to macroeconomic conditions alone during the 2001 recession.
ER  -