Tax Incentives and the Decision to Purchase Health Insurance: Evidence from the Self-Employed

50 Pages Posted: 20 Jul 2001 Last revised: 28 Apr 2023

See all articles by Jonathan Gruber

Jonathan Gruber

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

James M. Poterba

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: August 1993

Abstract

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 introduced a new tax subsidy for health insurance purchases by self-employed persons. This paper analyzes the changing patterns of insurance demand before and after this reform to generate new estimates of how the after tax price of insurance affects the discrete choice of whether to buy insurance. We employ both traditional regression models for insurance demand, in which after-tax price of insurance is an explanatory variable. as well as nonparametric tests that compare changes in insurance purchases by self-employed individuals with the coincident changes for other groups. Our analysis suggests that I one percent increase in the cost of insurance coverage reduces the probability that a self-employed household will be insured by as much as 1.8 percentage points.

Suggested Citation

Gruber, Jonathan and Poterba, James M. and Poterba, James M., Tax Incentives and the Decision to Purchase Health Insurance: Evidence from the Self-Employed (August 1993). NBER Working Paper No. w4435, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=227332

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James M. Poterba

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics ( email )

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