I’m tabulating the variable HCOVANY by age group, including 18-24, which includes a lot of college students who may get coverage through a university. Anybody know whether HCOVANY or its component variables specifically ask about health coverage/care through a school, educational institution, or group quarters? Cannot find it mentioned in any documentation. Thanks.
This Census Bureau glossary provides definitions of health insurance terminology found in surveys including the ACS. I do not see anything in the ACS documentation about health insurance coverage purchased through colleges or universities, including Student Health Insurance Plans (SHIPs) or health insurance provided to graduate student workers. I would assume that graduate student workers’ health insurance would fall under the own employer-provided insurance category, and would therefore be captured in HINSEMP. How SHIPs or other student health plans would be coded is less obvious. I suspect a major difficulty in identifying student health insurance will be the large share of college students who obtain health insurance through their parents.
On the ACS questionnaire, respondents can report that an individual is covered by a type of insurance coverage not listed, and can write it in. See, for example, the 2024 ACS questionnaire. These write-in responses are not captured in the health insurance variables, including HCOVANY.
You may consider looking at college students (identified in GRADEATT) who are not employed to see which types of insurance are most common. Comparing this to other populations of interest may provide insight into how student insurance plans may be categorized by respondents. Keep in mind that the ACS is a questionnaire that people respond to themselves, and they respond to questions however they choose. People might not consistently or accurately classify student health insurance plans.
CPS data available from IPUMS CPS provide much more detail about health insurance coverage, including being able to identify whether an individual is a dependent versus policyholder on a plan. See the list of ASEC variables in the health insurance category.
Thank you Isabel, that’s much more detail than I found but leads to same conclusion: it’s not there and might cause a misleading result from HCOVANY when looking at Gen Z, my current project, which is disproportionately composed of college-age individuals at the moment. Thanks.