Description

PAIDGH indicates whether an employer or union paid for all, part, or none of the cost of premiums for an employment-based group health insurance plan that the respondent was included in (i.e., was the policyholder for), during the previous calendar year. For discussion of changes in the question wording about inclusion in employment-based health insurance, see INCLUGH.

Comparability

User Note: For a set of variables that addresses many of the comparability issues in the CPS health insurance measures, see the summary health insurance variables created by the University of Minnesota's State Health Access Data Assistance Center.

Along with changes in the universe, the degree of detail in responses to PAIDGH differed across years. For 1980 and 1995, the only codes included are "NIU," "Yes" (employer paid some or all of the premiums for the policy), and "No" (employer did not help pay the premiums). For other years, a more detailed response replaces "Yes"; the data specify whether the employer or union absorbed "Some" or "All" of the cost of employment-based group health insurance premiums. Users can achieve comparability over time by grouping together values that share the same first digit, thereby recoding responses for all years into the bivariate responses available for 1980 and 1995.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables

• UH_HIPAID_A1
• UH_HIPAID_A2
• UH_HIPAID_A3
• UH_HIPAID_A4
• UH_HIPAID_A5
• UH_ZHIPAID_A1