AEA Papers and Proceedings
ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)
Racial Wealth Inequality and Access to Care with High-Deductible Health Insurance
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 114,
May 2024
(pp. 180–85)
Abstract
This paper evaluates racial inequalities in health-care affordability between high-deductible and conventional insurance. Using the 2011–2017 National Health Interview Survey, the study finds that Blacks in high-deductible plans are not disproportionately higher income, nor more engaged in other savings vehicles, unlike their White counterparts, indicating they may be income constrained rather than desiring to partially self-insure. Furthermore, conditional on income, wealth explained more of the racial disparity in health-care access among high-deductible enrollees than conventional enrollees, consistent with the hypothesis that benefit designs relying on households' cash reserves would yield greater disparities due to the magnitude of racial inequalities in assets.Citation
Zewde, Naomi. 2024. "Racial Wealth Inequality and Access to Care with High-Deductible Health Insurance." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 114: 180–85. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20241104Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D31 Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
- G22 Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
- G51 Household Finance: Household Saving, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
- I13 Health Insurance, Public and Private
- I14 Health and Inequality
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination