Does access to free care for the uninsured decrease the likelihood of obtaining employment-based health insurance?
Bradley J Herring, The Health Care Systems Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 3641 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6218, 215-573-9075, herrin53@wharton.upenn.edu Much speculation exists about the economic determinants of the uninsured. Despite its good intentions, access to the “safety net” of free care for the uninsured may make paying for private health insurance less attractive for certain households and thus increase their likelihood of being uninsured. This paper tests this relationship empirically, concentrating on the variation in access to free care for the uninsured across the different markets in the 1996-1997 Community Tracking Study Household Survey. Models predicting whether or not individual workers obtain employment-based insurance are examined, and strong evidence that workers are less likely to obtain insurance in markets with greater access to free care is found. Furthermore, with the growing phenomenon of uninsured workers declining cover
