The Effects of Health Insurance and Self-Insurance on Retirement Behavior

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the effect of employer-provided health insurance and Medicare in determining retirement behavior. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we estimate the first dynamic programming model of retirement that accounts for both saving and uncertain medical expenses. Our results suggest that uncertainty and saving are both important. We find that workers value health insurance well in excess of its actuarial cost, and that access to health insurance has a significant effect on retirement behavior, which is consistent with the empirical evidence. As a result, shifting the Medicare eligibility age to 67 would cause a significant retirement delay--as large as the delay from shifting the Social Security normal retirement age from 65 to 67.

On the Distribution and Dynamics of Health Costs

Using data from the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS) and Assets and Health Dynamics of the Oldest Old (AHEAD), this paper presents estimates of the stochastic process that determines both the distribution and dynamics of health costs. We find that the data generating process for health costs is well represented by an ARMA(1,1). Furthermore, innovations to this process are close to lognormally distributed. In any given year, .1% of our sample receives a health cost shock that costs at least $80,000 in present value. Lastly, we discuss the accuracy of numerical solutions when integrating over health costs. Assuming lognormality, simple approximation rules work well.

The Effects of Health Insurance and Self-Insurance on Retirement Behavior

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the effects of employer-provided health insurance, Medicare, and Social Security on retirement behavior. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we estimate a dynamic programming model of retirement that accounts for both saving and uncertain medical expenses. Our results suggest that Medicare is important for understanding retirement behavior, and that uncertainty and saving are both important for understanding the labor supply responses to Medicare. Half the value placed by a typical worker on his employer-provided health insurance is the value of reduced medical expense risk. Raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 leads individuals to work an additional 0.074 years over ages 60-69. In comparison, eliminating two years worth of Social Security benefits increases years of work by 0.076 years.

The effects of health insurance and self-insurance on retirement behavior

Using an estimable dynamic programming model of retirement behavior, this paper assesses the relative importance of Medicare and Social Security in determining job exit rates at age 65. Of central importance is whether individuals value health insurance benefits not just for the reduction in average medical expenses, but also for the reduction in the volatility of medical expenses. To address this problem the model accounts explicitly for the effects of health cost volatility and health insurance on retirement behavior. By including a savings decision within the model, we allow for the possibility that individuals can self-insure against health cost shocks. Self-insurance potentially reduces an individual's valuation of health insurance. Using data from the Health and Retirement Survey, we find that the reduction in expected medical expenses explains 75% of a typical individual's valuation of health insurance, with the reduction in volatility explaining the remaining 25%. We find that shifting the Medicare eligibility age to 67 will delay age of retirement. However, shifting the Social Security normal retirement age to 67 will cause a larger retirement delay than shifting the Medicare eligibility age to 67.Insurance, Health ; Medical care

Low frequency intermolecular and interionic vibrations

Imperial Users onl

Ectoparasites and Other Arthropod Associates of Some Voles and Shrews From the Catskill Mountains of New York

Reported here from the Catskill Mountains of New York are 30 ectoparasites and other associates from 39 smoky shrews, Sorex fumeus, 17 from 11 masked shrews, Sorex cinereus, 11 from eight long-tailed shrews, Sorex dispar, and 31 from 44 rock voles, Microtus chrotorrhinus

Ectoparasites and Other Arthropod Associates of the Hairy-tailed Mole, \u3ci\u3eParascalops Breweri\u3c/i\u3e

A total of 33 taxa of ectoparasites and other associates was taken on seven individuals of the Hairy-tailed Mole, Parascalops breweri, from New York and New England. The most abundant form was the glycyphagid mite, Labidophorus nearcticus

Reinventing Legacy Media

John French: Co-Founder, French LL

Irish-American Identity, Memory, and Americanism During the Eras of the Civil War and First World War

This dissertation connects the well-documented history of the repression of wartime dissent in the United States with the complex relationship between Americans and immigrants. The study focuses specifically on Irish-American efforts to insulate themselves from accusations of unpatriotic and un-American attitudes and behaviors by highlighting their uniquely American contributions and principles. The Civil War and First World War eras provide ideal time frames for such an evaluation. Marked by xenophobia and institutionalized nativism, each era found many Americans and government officials accusing the American Irish of disloyalty because of their opposition to the prosecution of the war. In order to justify their positions, Irish-American leaders (prominent newspaper editors, historians, and those involved in Irish-American nationalistic organizations who consciously sought to sway both mainstream American and Irish-American sensibilities) propagated the notion that the American Irish were in fact the most American citizens. They turned the tables on nativists by labeling them and their politics as un-American. They used their memory of the American Revolution to sanction these ideas, tailoring their interpretation of American history to fit the circumstances they faced. During the Civil War, this meant adapting Revolutionary rhetoric to justify their Copperhead politics and unfavorably contrast Republicans with the Founding Fathers. During the First World War, Irish-American notables equated the American Revolution with the contemporary situation in Ireland, arguing for absolute Irish autonomy. Furthermore, Irish-American champions asserted that it had actually been Irish Catholics that dominated the ranks of the Continental Army and thus were primarily responsible for freeing the American colonies from British dominion. By promulgating this collective memory, Irish-American luminaries simultaneously positioned themselves as especially American and argued that the United States owed the Irish people an Irish republic modeled on the United States. My study, therefore, expands on traditional paradigms for understanding assimilation and Americanization. Analyzing how immigrants responded to accusations of disloyalty during distinct American wars not only informs our understanding of the immigrant experience in the United States but also elucidates what it has meant to be an American in these times of crisis