Description

For persons (from non-single person families for 1993 to 1996) , this variable indicates whether the respondent received health or medical care in the last 12 months that has been or will be paid for by Medicaid.

Note that MCARECYR was not used to ascertain coverage status. Persons were considered to be covered by Medicaid if they had a Medicaid card (for 1982 to 1989, MCCARDTY) or were covered by Medicaid last month MCAMONTH for 1992 to 1996).

Medicaid was generally defined to respondents as a program which provides health or medical care for low-income or disabled persons in need. Because state names for Medicaid programs vary, respondents were also informed of the state name for the program.

In 1986 and 1989, the Field Representative's Manuals instructed that if the respondent indicated that the Medicaid assistance was used to pay for premiums instead of direct medical costs then interviewers should indicate this person as not covered by Medicaid since "paying health insurance premiums is not considered paying for healthcare."

This variable is not comparable with the recoded variable HIMCAIDE, which reflects responses edited for accuracy by the NCHS. See the Comparability tab for more details.

Comparability

Apart from changes in the universe, there are no comparability issues. Changes in survey design (e.g., quarters in which the supplement was collected) may affect raw frequencies, but do not affect comparability of the variable. As always, data users should use the prescribed IPUMS NHIS weights.

This variable is not comparable with the recoded variable HIMCAIDE, which reflects responses edited for accuracy by the NCHS. During the course of data editing, the NCHS discovered many errors in the responses to questions about insurance coverage. This might be shown, for example, by a mismatch between the verbatim name of an insurance plan and the type of insurance coverage the person selected from the categories on the card. Users should not combine MCARECYR with HIMCAIDE.

Universe

Availability

• 1977-1984, 1986, 1989, 1993-1996

Weights

• 1977-1982, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1994-1996 : PERWEIGHT
• 1983, 1993 : SAMPWEIGHT