I am currently trying to produce estimates of offer rates and eligibility rates for employer-sponsored health insurance by occupation. I am using the IPUMS CPS data and have been focusing on HIOFFER (offered by employer) and HIELIG (eligible if offered) variables. I am getting stuck on truly understanding who is considered NIU for HIOFFER, and the IPUMS documentation has not cleared it up unfortunately. I’ve been able to confirm in the data that HIELIG is only asked if employer-sponsored health insurance is offered (HIOFFER == 2). However, there are many people who are employed but are considered not in the universe (NIU) for HIOFFER. There are also people covered and not covered by employer-sponsored health insurance who are NIU for HIOFFER.
I was wondering if anyone could shed light on the NIU for HIOFFER, beyond what’s in the documentation.
It matters because offer rates are quite high if you omit the HIOFFER NIU observations. However, they’re much lower if you do consider employed people NIU for HIOFFER in offer rates. Thank you!