Description

For all persons with military health care coverage (HIMILITE), HICHAMPANY reports if the person was covered by CHAMPUS, TRICARE, or CHAMP-VA health insurance. Please see the Comparability and Universe tabs for important information on changes to the Universe and component types of military coverage included in this variable over time.

Interviewers handed respondents a flashcard that listed various types of insurance, including Military health care (TRICARE/VA/CHAMP-VA). Respondents who selected military health care were then asked to indicate whether they had TRICARE, VA, CHAMP-VA or other military coverage, and could select all that applied.

Data Editing and Recoding

During the course of data editing, the NCHS discovered many errors in the responses to questions about insurance coverage. Often, respondents misclassified the type of insurance they had. 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.

Accordingly, the NCHS created a series of recoded insurance variables. For these recoded insurance variables, such as HIMILITE, the data are back-edited, taking into account the verbatim names of insurance plans. The NCHS strongly advises analysts to use these recoded insurance variables as a more reliable source of information about the types of insurance coverage than is provided by respondents' original and unedited answers about their insurance type.

Comparability

In 2004-forward, HICHAMPANY is asked only of persons with military coverage. In 1997-1999, it is asked only of persons covered by some type of health plan. In all other years, the universe is broadly all persons (further restricted to quarters 3 and 4 in 1983 and 1993).

In 2004-forward, HICHAMPANY indicates if the person had coverage through TRICARE or CHAMP-VA. In 1997-2003, the variable reports coverage by CHAMPUS/TRICARE/CHAMP-VA. In 1993-1996, 1989, and 1986, the variable indicates coverage by CHAMPUS or CHAMP-VA. While in 1990-1991, the variable only reports coverage via CHAMPUS, and in 1982-1984, the variable only reports coverage via CHAMP-VA.

Universe

Availability

• 1982-1984, 1986, 1989-2018

Weights

• 1982, 1984, 1986, 1989-1992, 1994-2018 : PERWEIGHT
• 1983, 1993 : SAMPWEIGHT