Offers or Take-Up : Explaining Minorities' Lower Health Insurance Coverage

There is considerable evidence that minorities are less likely than whites to be covered under employment-based health insurance. In 2001, rates of Hispanic full-time workers were 21 and 15 percentage points lower than those of non-Hispanic white men and women. For policy purposes, understanding whether these disparities are generated by differences in the likelihood of being in a job offering coverage or in decisions regarding take-up of offered coverage is critical. We find significant effects of race and ethnicity on offers but not on take-up, controlling for job and demographic characteristics including nativity. Magnitudes of these effects differ by gender and household composition. Data are from the 1996 Panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)