Description

For all persons in families with at least four private health insurance plans, HI4PUSEYR indicates, for the fourth plan mentioned, if anyone used the private plan in the past 12 months.

The 1989 Field Representative's Manual described medical care as "any services which the individual claims are covered under the health insurance plan held by that person," such as hospital bills, doctor's bills, or surgeon's bills, lab fees, or prescriptions or medicines.

Related variables

Please use the IPUMS NHIS drop-down menus and search function for other related variables.

Data Collection Process

Details about the characteristics of insurance plans (such as HI4PUSEYR) 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. Information was collected on up to 5 plans.

In 1980 plans which paid extra cash for hospital stays were considered to be private health insurance, though single service plans were not considered to be health insurance. Private insurance referred to coverage for hospital, surgeon's, or doctor's bills.
The definition, order, and wording of private health insurance changed over time to reflect changes in the availability of different types of coverage and issues of interest. Users are strongly encouraged to review the user notes Insurance Data Collection and Private Insurance Definitions.

Comparability

There are no comparability issues.

Universe

Availability

• 1980

Weights

• 1980 : PERWEIGHT