title: Medical insurance and the use of health care services by the elderly.
abstract: The objective of this paper is to find how health insurance influences the use of health care services by the elderly. On the basis of the first wave of the Asset and Health Dynamics Survey, we find that those who are the most heavily insured use the most health care services. Because our data show little relationship between observable health measures and either the propensity to hold or to purchase private insurance, we interpret this as an effect of the incentives embodied in the insurance, rather than as the result of adverse selection in the purchase of insurance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, SUNY Stony Brook, New York, NY, USA. mcgarry@.ucla.edu
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Hurd
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McGarry
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D017149:Private Sector; D011336:Probability; D014481:United States