Tax Incentives as a Solution to the Uninsured: Evidence from the Self-Employed

Between 1996 and 2003, a series of amendments were made to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that gradually increased the tax credit for health insurance purchases by the self- employed from 25 to 100 percent. We study how these changes have in uenced the likelihood that a self-employed person has health i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc
Main Authors Regan, Tracy L, Gumus, Gulcin
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 01.01.2006
Subjects
Health insurance
Insurance coverage
Self employment
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Summary:Between 1996 and 2003, a series of amendments were made to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that gradually increased the tax credit for health insurance purchases by the self- employed from 25 to 100 percent. We study how these changes have in uenced the likelihood that a self-employed person has health insurance coverage as the policy holder. The Cur- rent Population Survey is used to construct a data set corresponding to 1995-2005. Both the di erence-in-di erence and price elasticity of demand estimates suggest that the series of tax credits did not provide sucient incentives for the self-employed to obtain health insurance coverage.