Short-run Effects of Job Loss on Health Conditions, Health Insurance, and Health Care Utilization

Abstract

Job loss in the United States is associated with long-term reductions in income and long-term increases in mortality rates. This paper examines the short-to medium-term changes in health, health care access, and health care utilization after job loss that lead to these long-term effects. Using a sample with more than 9800 individual job losses and longitudinal data on a wide variety of health-related measures and outcomes, we show that job loss results in worse self-reported health, including mental health, but is not associated with statistically significant increases in a variety of specific chronic conditions. Among the full sample of workers, we see reductions in insurance coverage, but little evidence of reductions in health care utilization after job loss. Among the subset of displaced workers for whom the lost job was their primary source of insurance we do see reductions in doctor's visits and prescription drug usage. These results suggest that access to health insurance and care may be an important part of the health effects of job loss for some workers. The pattern of results is also consistent with a significant role for stress in generating long-term health consequences after job loss.

Caution! Men not at work: Gender-specific labor market conditions and child maltreatment

“…For example, since fathers are often primary earners, labor market shocks that disproportionately affect males might have stronger income effects. There is also some indirect evidence that the mental health effects of male job losses are larger than the mental health effects of female job losses (Kalil andZiol-Guest 2008, Schaller andStevens 2015), though there are no studies (to our knowledge) focusing directly on parents' mental health. Meanwhile, we clearly expect changes in labor market opportunities that disproportionately affect one gender to have asymmetrical effects on bargaining power and family time use.…”

The Effects of Health Shocks on Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from UK Panel Data

“…A number of previous studies have examined health effects of negative employment shocks on people's health. It has been established that negative employment events such as mass layoffs, plant closings and job loss have significant negative effects on health outcomes of affected individuals [20,21,37,52,53,56]. Furthermore, other studies have examined the association between worsened economic conditions and health outcomes.…”

The effect of parental job loss on child school dropout: Evidence from the Occupied Palestinian Territories

“…Job loss has negative consequences on adults in terms of health and earnings (Farre et al, 2018;Schaller and Stevens, 2015;Sullivan and von Wachter, 2009). The e↵ects can be dramatic also for children.…”