Today or Last Year?
How Do Interviewees Answer the CPS Health Insurance Questions?
Published Aug 15, 2005
CPS estimates of annual health insurance coverage are below estimates from other surveys and administrative data. One potential explanation is that respondents misinterpret the question and report current rather than past year status. The authors use CPS data matched to administrative enrollment records for Medi-Cal in California to evaluate this possibility. The individual-level matched data allows them to explore the validity of CPS responses under different enrollment scenarios, where “truth” is based on administrative data. While they find some support for the reference period argument, their findings appear more consistent with a combination of cognitive perspectives on interviewing and stigma.
Topics
Document Details
- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Web-Only
- Year: 2005
- Pages: 20
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/WR288
- Document Number: WR-288
Citation
RAND Style Manual
Chicago Manual of Style
Ringel, Jeanne S. and Jacob Alex Klerman, Today or Last Year? How Do Interviewees Answer the CPS Health Insurance Questions? RAND Corporation, WR-288, 2005. As of September 11, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR288.html
Ringel, Jeanne S. and Jacob Alex Klerman, Today or Last Year? How Do Interviewees Answer the CPS Health Insurance Questions? Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2005. https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR288.html.
The research described in this report was performed under the auspices of RAND Labor and Population.
This publication is part of the RAND working paper series. RAND working papers are intended to share researchers' latest findings and to solicit informal peer review. They have been approved for circulation by RAND but may not have been formally edited or peer reviewed.
This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.
RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.