Description

For persons who have at least four private insurance plans, this variable indicates the person's fourth plan was paid for by Medicaid.

Information was collected on up to four plans per family; for 2004 forward, only data on the first and second plan are publicly available. Users may also want to see the variables HIP1CAID through HIP4CAID. Users may also want to see the variable description for HIPCAIDR, a recoded variable created by the IPUMS NHIS staff, which indicates if the respondent had any private plan paid for by Medicaid.

Please see HIP1CAID (Plan 1: Paid for by Medicaid) for more information on collection and editing of private health insurance plan data.

Comparability

This variable is mostly comparable over time. As new forms of plan payment and public insurance programs became available, slight changes were made to the response categories. For all years, the categories of self or family (living in the household), employer or union, someone outside the household, Medicare, and Medicaid were available. For 1999 forward, respondents could report the category Children's Health Insurance Program. From 1998 forward, the category, "state or local government or community program" was used in place of the 1997 category of "government program."

As noted in the variable description for HIP1CAID, the variables for 1997 forward have been edited by the NCHS to improve accuracy of the type of insurance the respondent had (private, Medicaid, SCHIP, Military, etc.). This reduces comparability with variables with earlier years.

Universe

Availability

• 1997-2003

Weights

• 1997-2003 : PERWEIGHT