# Health Insurance Variables in the CPS 2019 ASEC

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/health-insurance-variables-in-the-cps-2019-asec/3709>\
**Category:** CPS\
**Created:** [August 21, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/health-insurance-variables-in-the-cps-2019-asec/3709 "2020-08-21T13:45:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![David\_Salkever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@David\_Salkever](https://forum.ipums.org/u/David_Salkever)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/health-insurance-variables-in-the-cps-2019-asec/3709/1 "2020-08-21T13:45:55Z")

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There are some health insurance variables that I have downloaded from IPUMS for the 2019 ASEC supplement that are entirely missing but that had been available in previous years. The most important example is the variable VERIFIED which is a flag indicating someone was verified as having no health insurance.

I would like to know 1) if there are replacements for these missing variables on the 2019 ASEC CPS file and if so what are they. I am most interested in the variable VERIFIED though I noticed some others like “carely” that are also completely missing.

If it is convenient, call me at 410-4660-6238. My email is salkever@umbc.edu

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**Author:** ![Grace\_Cooper](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/grace_cooper/32/376_2.png) [@Grace\_Cooper](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Grace_Cooper)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/health-insurance-variables-in-the-cps-2019-asec/3709/2 "2020-08-24T17:50:37Z")

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The Census Bureau completed an overhaul of its editing procedures that involved changes to the 2019 ASEC Supplement, the details of which can be read about in the [2019 ASEC Updates Documentation](https://cps.ipums.org/cps/asec_2019_changes.shtml) and this [blog post](http://blog.popdata.org/2019asec/). These changes include the addition of new health insurance variables as well as removal of several variables, including [VERIFY](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/VERIFY#codes_section) and [CARELY](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/CARELY#codes_section). There are no direct replacements for the variables that have been removed. You may find some of the new variables (denoted by an NW suffix) to be adequate substitutes, such as [ANYCOVNW](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/ANYCOVNW#description_section), which reports health insurance coverage for the previous year or [HIMCARENW](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/HIMCARENW#codes_section), which reports current Medicare coverage.