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Dynamics of Health and Employment. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, July 2009, Pages: 92
Empirically, 83 percent of the 45 million uninsured
in the United States are in working families. As a
result, mandatory employer-provided health insurance
has been one of the hotly debated policies in order
to reduce the portion of the uninsured. However,
whether this mandate is economically justified
remains an open question. This book tries to shed
some light on this problem. It first examines the
effect of health on labor force participation using
data from Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).
Based on the empirical findings, a rigorous dynamic
heterogeneous agent model is then built to further
study the relationship with health insurance.
Eventually, it compares the welfare of the working-
aged individuals before and after the mandate. It
finds a welfare loss of 0.7 percent of GDP with the
mandate. As a result, the author questions whether
calls for mandatory employer-provided health
insurance are actually desirable. This book is
essential reading for upper level undergraduate and
postgraduate students taking courses within health
economics, economics and public health or policy. It
will also be an invaluable reference book for
relevant policy makers.
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