Filling Gaps in Health Insurance Over Time
Commonwealth Fund
05/15/02 - 07/14/03
Pamela Farley Short, Center for Health Care and Policy Research and Department of Health Policy and Administration
Deborah J. Graefe, Social Science Research Institute
This study informed efforts to insure the uninsured by examining losses and transitions in Americans' health insurance over a four-year period, using data from the 1996 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The large number of people who experience gaps and transition in coverage over time is not fully reflected in commonly cited statistics about the uninsured, which typically focus on the uninsured at a moment in time. The goals of the study were to increase awareness of the policy significance of coverage dynamics and to inform the development of reform strategies that are specifically designed to fill (or shorten) gaps in health insurance over time.
Related Publications
Short, P.F. and D.R. Graefe (2003). "Battery-Powered Health Insurance? Stability in Coverage of the Uninsured." Health Affairs. 22(6):244-255. |Full Text|
Short, P.F., D.R. Graefe and C. Schoen (2003). "Churn, Churn, Churn: How Instability of Health Insurance Shapes America's Uninsured Problem." Task Force on the Future of Health Insurance Issue Brief. November. |Full Text|