Gendered Effects of Health Insurance on Health Outcomes

• In Event: 3129 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 1. Gendered Effects on Health

Abstract

The effect of health insurance on workers' health outcomes has not been extensively investigated. Considering observed gender health disparities and declining employer-sponsored health insurance coverage in the U.S. over recent decades, this study tests whether employer-sponsored insurance has differing effects on men’s and women's overall health outcomes. The analysis uses panel data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) national sample between 1996 -2016 to test the health insurance effect on full-time male and female workers with stable jobs during the period of surveys. The fixed-effect regression models control for personal time-invariant variables, as well as time trends. The results show that the monetary contribution of employer-sponsored health insurance has a significant effect on men's health, but does not have significant effect on women's health. Both partially-paid and fully-paid health insurance improves men's health, but only fully-paid insurance improves women's health. Overall, the magnitude of insurance effect on men's health is double of that for women's health. These results are consistent in different model specifications and in tests with the samples of young and mid-age workers, as well as White and non-white populations. Building on the argument that emphasizes workplace characteristics affecting men and women differently, the author concludes that reductions in employer-sponsored insurance coverage may influence men’s health more negatively and contribute to the already observed gender health disparities.

Author

• Xi Chen, Quinnipiac University