The Self-Employed are Less Likely to Have Health Insurance than Wage Earners. So What?

Abstract:     
The disparities in American healthcare coveragecontinue to spark many debates.Among those without insurance, theself-employed have been objects of concern since they have lower rates ofhealthcare coverage than their wage-earning counterparts.This studyexamines whether the lack of healthcare coverage among the self-employednegatively impacts their overall health. A review of past literature reveals many corresponding issues, including thedemand for health insurance and the connections between health insurance andhealth outcomes.To examine the impact of the lack of healthcare onoverall health, data were utilized from the Household Component of the 1996Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).Of the individuals sampled(n=8,986), 1,088 were self-employed.A lengthy preliminary analysis isprovided to discuss the variables of the study.The multivariate analysesfocused on several factors, including insurance coverage, health status,income, hours worked, utilization, and children. The findings indicate that the health of workers and of their children isnot affected by a lack of health insurance.A number of possibleexplanations for these findings are presented, including the influence ofgenetics and environment on individual health. (AKP)

Keywords: Health care, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, Health, Healthcare industry, Self-employment, Wage workers, Income, Health insurance

Accepted Paper Series