Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This study aims to improve measurement of health insurance out-of-pocket premiums (OOP-P) by modifying the imputation procedures used in the Current Population Survey Annual and Economic Supplement (CPS-ASEC). In 2014, the CPS ASEC was redesigned to collect monthly data on health insurance. This study will use the newly available monthly health insurance data to improve imputation of OOP-P by including the number of months a policyholder is covered by private insurance in our imputation model of a policy holder’s OOP-P. Data will be imputed if one of two conditions are met: 1. OOP-P is missing 2. a policy holder reports $0 in premiums despite previously reporting coverage under an unsubsidized insurance plan. We will report the average OOP-P for policyholders under the old and new imputation procedures of OOP-P and estimate the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) poverty rate for adults (aged 18-64) using the old and newly calculated OOP-P. Because out-of-pocket premiums have been increasing for many families, it is important that we continue to evaluate and improve our measurement of OOP-P. We expect that the measurement of OOP-P in the CPS ASEC may change significantly when we add information on the months of health insurance coverage to the imputation model. Given that OOP-P are a substantial part of SPM, we expect that changing the imputation procedure of OOP-P may have important implications for SPM. We will conclude by discussing the policy implications of using the new measure of OOP-P for health insurance premiums and SPM.