14.4.

1 Data description

449

We analyze data on supplementary health insurance coverage. Initial andysis estimates

the parameters of the models of section 14.2.

14.4.1

Data description

The data come from wave 5 (2002) of the Health aiid Retirement Study (HRS),a panel
survey sponsored by the National Institute of Aging. The sauiple is restricted to Medicare beneficiaries. The HRS contains information on a variety of medical service uses.
The elderly can ohtain supplemeiitary insurance coverage either by purchasing it themselves os by joining employer-sponsored plans. We use the data to analyze the purchase
of private insurance ( i n s ) from any source, including private markets or associations.
The insurance coverage broadly measures both individually purchased and employersponsored private supplementary insurance, and includes Medigap plans and other policies.
Explanatory variables inciude hedth status, socioeconomic characteristics, and
spouse-reiated information. Self-assessed health-statiis informatioii is used t o generate a duinmy variable (hstatusg) that measures whether health status is good, very
good, os exceiient. Otlier measures of health status are the number of limitations (up
to five) on activities of daily living (adl) and the total number of chronic coiiditions
(chronic). Socioeconomic variables used are age, gender, race, ethnicity, marital status, years of education, and retirement status (respectively, age, f emale, white, h i s p ,
married, educyear, r e t i r e ) ; household income (bhincome); and log liousehold income
if positive ( l i n c ) . Spouse retirement status ( s r e t i r e ) is an indicatos variable equal to
1 if a retired spouse is present.
Por conciseness, we use global macros t o create variable lists, presenting the variables
used in sections 14.4-14.7 followed by aclditional variables used in sectioii 14.8. We have

. * Laad d a t a
.

use musl4data.dta

Interactian variables
drop age2 agofcm agacbr agcuhi

.*

Summary s t a t i s t i c s of Variables

. g l o b d n l i s t age hstazusg hhinsama

. goneratc l i n c = ln(hhinc1

o d u c g e ~marriod hisp

(9 misaing valves generatcd)

, global e x t r a l i s t l i n c female white chranic

adl s r e t i r e

(Coiitinued on next page)