TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kapur,Kanika
AU  - Rogowski,Jeannette
TI  - Love or Money? Health Insurance and Retirement Among Married Couples
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 12273
PY  - 2006
Y2  - June 2006
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12273
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w12273.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jeannette A. Rogowski
UMDNJ - School of Public Health
Department of Health Systems and Policy
683 Hoes Lane West, Room 332
Piscataway, NJ  08854
Tel: 732/235-9759
Fax: 732/235-4004
E-Mail: rogowsje@umdnj.edu
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2006-06-05
AB  - This paper examines the role of employer provided health insurance in the retirement decisions of dual working couples. The near elderly have high-expected medical expenditures; therefore, availability of health insurance is an important factor in their retirement decisions. We determine if access to retiree health insurance for early retirement enables couples to time their retirement together %u2013 a behavior called %u201Cjoint retirement.%u201D We find that wives%u2019 retiree health insurance more than doubles the propensity to retire jointly, suggesting that health insurance is an important consideration in coordinating retirement decisions among couples. Even though retiree health insurance has a substantial effect on joint retirement, its effect on overall employment patterns is modest, accounting for a 2 percentage point fall in employment.
ER  -