The effect of methodological differences in two survey's estimates of the percentage of employers sponsoring health insurance.
Two large surveys on employer-sponsored health insurance produced different estimates of the percentage of employers offering insurance to their employees in 1993. These differences occurred despite major similarities in the surveys' purpose and design. In this paper, five survey design factors are assessed. Estimates from the second survey were recomputed to eliminate cases not included in the first survey. Survey estimates were no longer significantly different when cases were removed because establishments had moved, were single-employee establishments on the sample frame, were classified as completed only in the second survey, or when poststratification adjustments in the weighting used only in the second survey were eliminated. Based on a comparison of 449 cases that responded in both surveys, changes in the wording of questions also probably contributed to the difference in survey estimates. These results indicate that estimates from these types of surveys are very sensitive to differing designs.
Hing
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E
Division of Health Care Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, MD 20782, USA.
Poe
G
G
Euller
R
R
D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019538:Health Care Surveys / Q000379:methods*; D006285:Health Planning; D006801:Humans; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D012107:Research Design; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States