Insuring against Health Shocks: Health Insurance and Household Choices
40 Pages Posted: 7 Nov 2013 Last revised: 8 Jun 2015
There are 2 versions of this paper
Insuring against Health Shocks: Health Insurance and Household Choices
Insuring Against Health Shocks: Health Insurance and Household Choices
Date Written: May 2015
Abstract
This paper provides empirical evidence on the role of public health insurance in mitigating adverse outcomes associated with health shocks. Exploiting the rollout of a universal health insurance program in rural China, I find that total household income and consumption are fully insured against health shocks even without access to health insurance. Household labor supply is an important insurance mechanism against health shocks. Access to health insurance helps households to maintain investment in children's human capital during negative health shocks, which suggests that one benefit of health insurance could arise from reducing the use of costly smoothing mechanisms.
JEL Classification: D1, O1, I1
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Consumption Smoothing and the Welfare Consequences of Social Insurance in Developing Economies
By Raj Chetty and Adam Looney
-
Income Risk and the Benefits of Social Insurance: Evidence from Indonesia and the United States
By Raj Chetty and Adam Looney