Two of the public assistance programs-old-age assistance and aid to dependent children-and the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance program have a common purpose in that they are incomemaintenance programs for aged persons and for children. For this reason, the Bureau of Public Assistance summarizes in the Bulletin each year information obtained by State and local public assistance agen...

Insurance is a key risk-sharing mechanism that protects citizens and governments from the losses caused by natural catastrophes. Given the increase in the frequency and intensity of natural catastrophes over recent years, this article analyzes the performance effects of mega-catastrophes for U.S. insurance firms using a measure of market expectations. Specifically, we analyze the share price lo...

Subsidized insurance premiums are present in nearly all public and some private insurance systems. Such subsidies are usually implemented to increase participation in the insurance program and to decrease the effects of adverse selection in the market. It has been argued that the increased demand for insurance due to subsidies also increases the market inefficiencies stemming from moral hazard ...

Social Insurance with Competitive Insurance Markets and Risk Misperception* This paper considers an economy where individuals differ in productivity and in risk. Rochet (1991) has shown that when private insurance markets offer full coverage at fair rates, social insurance is desirable if and only if risk and productivity are negatively correlated. This condition is usually shown to be satisfie...

BACKGROUND Observational data in the United States suggests that those without health insurance have a higher mortality and worse health outcomes. A linkage between insurance coverage and outcomes in hospitalized patients has yet to be demonstrated in resource-poor settings. METHODS To determine whether uninsured patients admitted to the public medical wards at a Kenyan referral hospital have...

Government intervention in insurance markets is ubiquitous and the theoretical basis for such intervention, based on classic work from the 1970s, has been the problem of adverse selection. Over the last decade, empirical work on selection in insurance markets has gained considerable momentum. This research finds that adverse selection exists in some insurance markets but not in others. And it h...

OBJECTIVE Many studies have documented the adverse consequences of uninsurance for children, but less is known about the differential effects of varying periods of uninsurance. This study examines the relative effects of varying periods of uninsurance (uninsured for 1-4 months, 5-11 months, or all year) on children's access to care. METHODS Using data from the 2005 California Health Interview...

OBJECTIVE Financial incentives associated with private insurance may encourage healthcare providers to perform more caesarean sections. We therefore sought to determine the association of private insurance and odds of caesarean section. DESIGN Systematic review and meta-analysis. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE, Embase and The Cochrane Library from the first year of records through August 2016. ELIG...

Health insurance coverage plays a key role in meeting adolescents’ needs by increasing their access to health care, yet adolescents are more likely to lack coverage than younger children.1 One in seven adolescents ages 10 to 18 has no form of public or private insurance.2 Even higher rates of uninsurance are found among lowincome, black, and Hispanic adolescents. For lowincome adolescents, insu...