Commentary on "A methodology for identifying married couples in Medicare data".
Authors of an article appearing recently in Demography propose a retrospective method to identify husband-wife pairs in administrative records. Although their premise is correct, they over-state the power of their methodology. The error stems from a misunderstanding of how persons entitled to both primary and secondary social security benefits are classified in program data. A retrospective look four years after the reference data shows that the number of pairs is increased by less than 10%, not by more than 50%, as the authors claim.
Kestenbaum
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Social Security Administration, Office of the Chief Actuary, Baltimore, MD 21235, USA. Bert.M.Kestenbaum@ssa.gov
D000368:Aged; D003625:Data Collection; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009017:Morbidity; D009026:Mortality; D018454:Spouses / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology