Health insurance coverage and the macroeconomy

This paper investigates the relationship between the macroeconomy and health insurance coverage for non-elderly Americans. We find that, for men, state unemployment rate is positively correlated with the probability of health insurance coverage in general and through an employer in particular, and that these correlations are only partly explained by changes in employment status. In contrast, the insurance coverage of women and children appears to be insulated from fluctuations in the unemployment rate by public health insurance programs like Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). We estimate that 984,000 Americans, nearly all of whom were adult men, lost health insurance due to macroeconomic conditions alone during the 2001 recession.