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Retiree Health Insurance for Public School Employees: Does It Affect Retirement?

In: State and Local Health Plans for Active and Retired Public Employees

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  • Maria D. Fitzpatrick

Abstract

Despite the widespread provision of retiree health insurance for public sector workers, little attention has been paid to its effects on employee retirement. This is in contrast to the large literature on health-insurance-induced “job-lock” in the private sector. I use the introduction of retiree health insurance for public school employees in combination with administrative data on their retirement to identify the effects of retiree health insurance. As expected, the availability of retiree health insurance for older workers allows employees to retire earlier. These behavioral changes have budgetary implications, likely making the programs self-financing rather than costly to taxpayers.
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Suggested Citation

  • Maria D. Fitzpatrick, 2013. "Retiree Health Insurance for Public School Employees: Does It Affect Retirement?," NBER Chapters, in: State and Local Health Plans for Active and Retired Public Employees, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:13293
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    Cited by:

    1. Erkmen Giray Aslim, 2019. "The Relationship Between Health Insurance and Early Retirement: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 112-140, January.
    2. Shoven, John B. & Slavov, Sita Nataraj, 2014. "The role of retiree health insurance in the early retirement of public sector employees," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 99-108.
    3. Lutz, Byron & Sheiner, Louise, 2014. "The fiscal stress arising from state and local retiree health obligations," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 130-146.
    4. Justin Falk & Nadia Karamcheva, 2018. "Comparing the Effects of Current Pay and Defined Benefit Pensions on Employee Retention: Working Paper 2018-06," Working Papers 54056, Congressional Budget Office.
    5. Joshua Congdon-Hohman, 2018. "Retirement Reversals and Health Insurance," Public Finance Review, , vol. 46(4), pages 583-608, July.
    6. Mark Duggan & Gopi Shah Goda & Emilie Jackson, 2019. "The Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Health Insurance Coverage and Labor Market Outcomes," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 72(2), pages 261-322, June.
    7. Helen Levy & Thomas Buchmueller & Sayeh Nikpay, 2015. "The Effect of Health Reform on Retirement," Working Papers wp329, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    8. Clark, Robert L. & Morrill, Melinda Sandler & Vanderweide, David, 2014. "The effects of retiree health insurance plan characteristics on retirees’ choice and employers’ costs," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 119-129.
    9. Helen Levy & Thomas Buchmueller & Sayeh Nikpay, 2018. "Is the Affordable Care Act Affecting Retirement Yet?," Working Papers wp393, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    10. Denis Fougère & Pierre Gouëdard, 2021. "The effects of financial incentives and disincentives on teachers' retirement decisions: Evidence from the 2003 French pension reform," Working Papers hal-03465859, HAL.
    11. Padmaja Ayyagari, 2019. "Health Insurance and Early Retirement Plans: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(4), pages 533-560, Fall.
    12. Fougère, Denis & Gouëdard, Pierre, 2021. "The effects of financial incentives and disincentives on teachers' retirement decisions: Evidence from the 2003 French pension reform," CEPR Discussion Papers 16673, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Byron Lutz & Louise Sheiner, 2014. "The Fiscal Stress Arising from State and Local Retiree Health Obligations," NBER Working Papers 19779, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Fougère, Denis & d'Albis, Hippolyte & Gouëdard, Pierre, 2020. "Slow Down Before You Stop: The Effect of the 2010 French Pension Reform on Older Teachers' Sick Leaves," CEPR Discussion Papers 15142, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Laura D. Quinby, 2020. "Do Deferred Retirement Benefits Retain Government Employees?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(2), pages 469-509, March.
    16. Robert Clark & Melinda Morrill, 2013. "Increasing Work Life: The Role Of The Employer," Discussion Papers 13-016, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    17. Kevin Wood, 2019. "Health insurance reform and retirement: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(12), pages 1462-1475, December.
    18. Sezen O. Onal, 2023. "Does the ACA Medicaid Expansion Encourage Labor Market Exits of Older Workers?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 56-93, June.
    19. Morrill, Melinda Sandler, 2014. "Active and retired public employees’ health insurance: Potential data sources," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 147-152.
    20. Bocong Yuan & Jiachun Fang & Jiannan Li & Fei Peng, 2022. "Chronic patients as retirement-aged workers: the impact of employment-based health insurance and chronic conditions on health-related working capacity and late-life career participation," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1351-1362, December.
    21. Kim, Dongwoo, 2020. "Worker retirement responses to pension incentives: Do they respond to pension wealth?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 365-385.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I22 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Educational Finance; Financial Aid
    • J26 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Retirement; Retirement Policies

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