title: The Effect of Medicare Eligibility on Spousal Insurance Coverage.
abstract: A majority of married couples in the USA take advantage of the fact that employers often provide health insurance coverage to spouses. When older spouses become eligible for Medicare, however, many of them can no longer provide their younger spouses with coverage. In this paper, we study how spousal eligibility for Medicare affects the health insurance and health care access of younger spouses. We find that spousal eligibility for Medicare results in younger spouses no longer having employers pay for their insurance and being less likely to have employer-sponsored coverage. Instead, younger spouses switch to privately purchased coverage, which tends to be worse than what they had before their spouses became eligible for Medicare. We also find suggestive evidence that younger spouses are less likely to use health care services after their older spouses become eligible for Medicare.
authors.affiliation: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Kalamazoo, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dillender
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Finance, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mulligan
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D004608:Eligibility Determination; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006278:Medicare / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D018454:Spouses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States
keywords: ACA; employer benefits; health insurance; individual market; marriage; medicare