The Fungible Value of Government and Employer Provided In-Kind Health Benefits¹

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Haber, Sheldon E.^{a; b}

Affiliations: [a] Department of Economics, The George Washington University, USA | [b] American Statistical Association, USA

Note: [ 1 ] This paper is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant SES 84-01460 and SES 87-13643, “On-Site Research to Improve the Government-Generated Social Science Data Base.” The research was conducted at the U.S. Bureau of the Census while the author was a participant in the American Statistical Association/Census Bureau Research Program, which is supported by the Census Bureau and through the NSF grant. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the Census Bureau.

Abstract: In this paper we discuss the issue of whether and how to value government and employer provided in-kind medical benefits in determining who is poor. Consideration of this issue leads to the suggestion that the fungible portion of medical care transfers should be included in the income of the poor as they constitute a significant percentage of their resources available for the purchase of goods and services. Fungible medical care transfers are defined as third party payments for medical benefits except those for hospital and nursing home care, on the premise that the latter are for nonroutine medical services that do not increase an individual's well-being. Estimates of the fungible portion of government and private in-kind medical benefits are developed from Health Care Financing Administration data that indicate that of the two, the former is less fungible.

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-1990-16405

Journal: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 241-251, 1990