US Farm households: joint decision making and impact of health insurance on labor market outcomes.

Latika Bharadwaj,Jill Findeis,Sachin Chintawar

doi:10.1186/2191-1991-3-16

Abstract

The paper attempts to answer a very simple question: how does a farm household respond as a unit in the labor market when benefits or health insurance is tied to employer provided jobs. One of the major changes affecting US agriculture has been a decline in the number of farms and an increase in the multiple job-holding, especially among farm women to fulfill various objectives ranging from helping out with farm expenses or securing benefits like health insurance. In addition to this, the new health care law or “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA”) to be operational by 2014 requires that all individuals be covered by a health plan. Hence, it’s important to understand the relationship between health insurance and labor markets to appropriately identify the impact of health policy reform for farm families.

Highlights

The paper attempts to answer a very simple question: how does a farm household respond as a unit in the labor market when benefits or health insurance is tied to employer provided jobs
If the spouse/partner is working full-time with health insurance, the farm women is more likely to work part-time or full-time without insurance perhaps to socialize with other people or be independent, depending on the situation of the farm household
Several studies have pointed out [8,11,12,13] that due to higher marginal returns in off-farm work, some farm households may first allocate labor to non-farm work. This view becomes even more relevant when we look at the cost of health insurance, and increasing participation of farm households especially farm women in off-farm labor markets to provide the farm family financial protection, such as health insurance that is generally not economical for the farm business to purchase for family members [14,15]

Summary

Introduction

The paper attempts to answer a very simple question: how does a farm household respond as a unit in the labor market when benefits or health insurance is tied to employer provided jobs. It’s important to analyze the issue as one of the major changes affecting US agriculture has been a decline in the number of farms and an increase in the multiple job-holding by farm operators, especially farm women to fulfill various objectives ranging from helping out with farm expenses or securing benefits like health insurance [1,2,3,4]. It’s important to understand the relationship between health insurance and labor markets to appropriately identify the impact of health policy reform for farm families.

Methods

Results

Conclusion