Description

For persons covered by a private health insurance plan obtained through an employer or union in the past month, HIEMPLPAY indicates whether the employer or union paid all, part, or none of the cost of the plan. No instructions were given to respondents regarding the definition of "cost."

Comparability

HIEMPLPAY is only available for 1991 and 1992; users who want to compare employer/union contributions to insurance costs over time should use the recoded variable HIPEMPAYR. HIEMPLPAY is included in that recode variable.

HIEMPLPAY is not entirely consistent with HI1EMPPAY (employer/union pays all or part of premium, available for 1989, 1992-1996), since the latter variable refers only to the individual's first plan. Likewise, HIEMPLPAY is not comparable with HIP1EMP (available for 1997 forward), since that, too, refers only to plan 1. For years in which information is collected for each plan in turn, one must summarize information across all plans to determine whether the person has any plan for which an employer/union paid part of the cost. Such a summary of employer/union contributions to insurance payments is available in the IPUMS NHIS-created recode variable HIPEMPAYR.

Universe

Availability

• 1991-1992

Weights

• 1991-1992 : PERWEIGHT