Health Insurance Expansions for Working Families

A Comparison of Targeting Strategies

July/August 2002
Health Affairs , Vol. 21, No. 4
Danielle H. Ferry, Bowen Garrett, Sherry Gilied, Emily K. Greenman, Len M. Nichols

his study compares three eligibility criteria for targeting health insurance expansions in working families: poverty, hourly wages, and employment in a small firm. Making pairwise comparisons among these, we find that targeting by poverty is the most effective and efficient. A poverty-based method is also the most effective way to target those lacking access to employer-sponsored insurance and those with low take-up of such coverage. When the effectiveness of targeting by family type is examined, the marital status and number of workers in the family make little difference once the presence of children and poverty level are controled for.

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