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Love, Toil, and Health Insurance: Why American Husbands Retire When They Do

Author

Listed:
  • Joshua Congdon-Hohman

    (Department of Economics, College of the Holy Cross)

Abstract
The provision of health insurance has previously been shown to be an important determinant of retirement timing among older Americans, but the existing literature has largely ignored some aspects of the inter-spousal dependence of health insurance benefits. Specifically, the literature examines only how retirement may affect the health insurance available to the potential retiree but not how it might affect a spouse's options. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, I find that the impact a husband's retirement might have on a wife's health insurance options has a statistically significant impact on a husband's rate of retirement that is independent of considerations of his own health insurance options. In households where the wife is the only one at risk of losing affordable health insurance if the husband retires, the husband is 30 percent less likely to retire than if neither spouse is at risk (a five percentage point decrease in the retirement rate). Based on these findings, prior research is missing one avenue that changes to the Medicare eligibility age and health insurance policy changes through the Affordable Care Act might impact the labor supply of older workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Joshua Congdon-Hohman, 2013. "Love, Toil, and Health Insurance: Why American Husbands Retire When They Do," Working Papers 1115, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hcx:wpaper:1115
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    File URL: https://hcapps.holycross.edu/hcs/RePEc/hcx/HC1115-Congdon_HealthInsurance.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. James Marton & Stephen A. Woodbury, 2013. "Retiree Health Benefits as Deferred Compensation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(1), pages 64-91, January.
    2. Joshua Congdon-Hohman, 2018. "Retirement Reversals and Health Insurance," Public Finance Review, , vol. 46(4), pages 583-608, July.
    3. Jane G. Gravelle & Sean Lowry, 2016. "The Affordable Care Act, Labor Supply, and Social Welfare," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 69(4), pages 863-882, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Retirement; health insurance; household decision-making;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H55 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Social Security and Public Pensions
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations

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