Codes and Frequencies
Description
For persons in families with at least four private health insurance plans, the fourth of which was not obtained through the workplace or for which the employer did not pay all of the cost (if through the workplace), HI4FAMPPAY indicates how much the person (or family) spent on the health insurance premium in the previous month, including payroll deductions for premiums, for the fourth plan reported. If necessary, interviewers mentioned that premiums were "...regular payments for health insurance coverage only, not for health care services. Frequently, these payments are made by payroll deductions." Persons were handed a card listing dollar amounts and asked to pick one category.
Details about the characteristics of insurance plans (such as HI4FAMPPAY) reflect plans for any family member in the household. In order to determine if the person (rather than someone else in the family) was covered by this plan, analysts should use the variable HI4PCOV (Health Insurance Plan 4: Person's Coverage Status), which indicates whether the person was covered by the plan.
Related variables
Please use the IPUMS NHIS drop-down menus and search function for other related variables.
Users are strongly encouraged to review the user notes Insurance Data Collection and Private Insurance Definitions.
Information was collected on up to four plans per family.
For expenditure on each plan in the family, users may also want to see the variables HI1FAMPPAY, HI2FAMPPAY, and HI3FAMPPAY. Likewise, the variables HI1PCOV, HI2PCOV, and HI3PCOV indicate coverage status for each plan.
For 1993 to 1996, single service plans were considered to be private health insurance, unlike other survey years. The Field Representative's Manuals defined private insurance as "Any type of health insurance (other than the public programs [already asked about in the survey] including coverage by a health maintenance organization (HMO) AND single service plans."
Comparability
Apart from changes in the survey quarters in which this question was asked, this variable is comparable for 1993 to 1996. Using the prescribed IHIS weights eliminates comparability issues related to survey design.
For 1999 forward, the variable, HIP4COST indicates the annual the out-of-pocket premium cost. However, HI4FAMPPAY and HIP4COST are not entirely comparable. For 1997 forward, single service plans were not considered to be health insurance. Details of private plans (such as cost) for 1997 forward also reflect editing by the NCHS staff ,who verified the accuracy of the reported type of insurance coverage.
For 1997 forward, the NCHS edited responses to the question on what kind of coverage the respondent had (private, Medicaid, Medicare, etc.) based on the plan name. Some persons originally claiming private coverage gave plan names matching public programs and thus were reassigned to the appropriate response category (such as Medicaid or Medicare). Similarly, some respondents who thought they had public insurance had private health insurance. While these errors were corrected for 1997 forward, such errors were not corrected for data for earlier years.
Universe
- 1993: Persons in quarters 3 and 4 covered by 4 private health insurance plans originally obtained through employer or union, and whose employer or union does not pay all of the cost of premiums for this health insurance plan (or for whom this was unknown).
- 1994-1996: Persons covered by 4 private health insurance plans originally obtained through employer or union, and whose employer or union does not pay all of the cost of premiums for this health insurance plan (or for whom this was unknown).
Availability
- 1993-1996
Weights
- 1994-1996 : PERWEIGHT
- 1993 : SAMPWEIGHT
