We analyze newly available data from the Health and Retirement Study on senior citizens' take-up of Medicare Part D and the associated SSA Low-Income Subsidy. We find that economic factors - specifically, demand for prescription drugs - drove the decision to enroll in Part D. For the most part,...

We have found modest effects of widowhood events on loss of health insurance. There are also modest effects of widowhood on labor supply, which we have not as yet attempted to attribute to insurance demand. Even new widowhood events, however, are not random with respect to initial conditions....

Many studies have shown that the availability of health insurance is an important determinant of the retirement decision. Beginning in January 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) made affordable alternatives to employer-sponsored health insurance much more widely available than they had been...