The Effect of Income Question Design in Health Surveys on Family Income, Poverty and Eligibility Estimates

Davern, Michael; Rodin, Holly; Beebe, Timothy J.; Call, Kathleen Thiede

doi:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2005.00416.x

Cited by 55 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The CPS constructs income by summing categories of earned and unearned income obtained for a series of questions for each individual, while the survey used by Long (2008) asks about total family income. The latter is likely to understate family income relative to the CPS (Michael Davern et al 2005), leading to a greater share of Massachusetts residents classified as lower-income in the earlier study than in the CPS.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Another Look at the Impacts of Health Reform in Massachusetts: Evidence Using New Data and a Stronger Model

Long

Stockley

Yemane

2009

American Economic Review

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Another Look at the Impacts of Health Reform in Massachusetts: Evidence Using New Data and a Stronger Model

Long

Stockley

Yemane

2009

American Economic Review

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“…There is some evidence that omnibus income questions, such as those used by Gallup-Healthways, produce lower estimates than the more detailed series of questions in the CPS. 15 In terms of health insurance, results were mixed. The government surveys differ in how questions about health insurance are asked, but despite that, produce similar estimates of the uninsured rate -other than the BRFSS.…”

Section: Key Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A potential new data source for assessing the impacts of health reform: Evaluating the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index

2014

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Background: Existing national health-related surveys take several months or years to become available. The Affordable Care Act will bring rapid changes to the health care system in 2014. We analyzed the Gallup-Healthways' Well-Being Index (WBI) in order to assess its ability to provide real-time estimates of the impact of the ACA on key health-related outcomes. Methods:We compared the Gallup-Healthways WBI to established surveys on demographics, health insurance, access to care, and health. Data sources were the Gallup-Healthways WBI, the Current Population Survey, the American Community Survey, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, the National Health Interview Survey, and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Demographic measures included age, race/ethnicity, education, and income. Insurance outcomes were coverage rates by type, state, and year. Access measures included having a usual source of care and experiencing cost-related delays in care. Health measures were self-reported health and history of specific diagnoses.Results: Most differences across surveys were statistically significant (p<0.05) due to large sample sizes, so our analysis focused on the absolute magnitude of differences. The GallupHealthways WBI post-weighted sample was similar in age, race/ethnicity, and education to other surveys, though the Gallup-Healthways WBI sample is slightly older, has fewer minorities, and is more highly educated than in other national surveys. In addition, income was more frequently missing. The Gallup-Healthways WBI produced similar national, state, and time-trend estimates on uninsured rates, but far lower rates of public coverage. Access to care and health status were similar in the Gallup-Healthways WBI and other surveys. Conclusions:The Gallup-Healthways WBI is a valuable complement to existing data sources for health services research. The Gallup-Healthways WBI estimates for uninsured rates and access to care were similar to established national surveys and may allow for rapid estimates of the ACA's impact on the uninsured in 2014. Estimates of insurance type are less comparable, particularly for public coverage, which likely limits the utility of the Gallup-Healthways WBI for analyzing changes in particular types of coverage.

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“…On the other hand, studies focused on LIS enrollment have used health survey data sets, which are helpful in identifying individual characteristics but suffer from underreporting of income and generally lack asset data (Goldman and Smith 2001;Davern et al 2005). As a result, proportions of LIS eligibility are likely to be overestimated, while enrollment may be underestimated using these data.…”

Section: Eligibility and Take-up Of The Lismentioning

confidence: 99%

Eligibility and Take-up of the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy

Shoemaker¹,

Davidoff²,

Stuart³

et al. 2012

INQUIRY

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There is concern about poor take-up of the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy (LIS), but uncertainty in published estimates. The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), which contains Medicare LIS enrollment records and extensive survey data on individual beneficiary characteristics, would appear an ideal resource for evaluating LIS take-up. However, use of the MCBS to identify eligible beneficiaries is limited due to underreporting of income and lack of asset information in the published MCBS releases. We evaluate LIS eligibility and participation by enhancing the reliability of MCBS financial information using unpublished survey data on income and assets together with an income imputation procedure.

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The Effect of Income Question Design in Health Surveys on Family Income, Poverty and Eligibility Estimates

Cited by 55 publications

References 16 publications

Another Look at the Impacts of Health Reform in Massachusetts: Evidence Using New Data and a Stronger Model

Another Look at the Impacts of Health Reform in Massachusetts: Evidence Using New Data and a Stronger Model

A potential new data source for assessing the impacts of health reform: Evaluating the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index

Eligibility and Take-up of the Medicare Part D Low-Income Subsidy

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