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Abstract:
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As increasing costs associated with health insurance and health care continue unabated, some in recent years have called for the federal government to expand Medicare to include those workers ready for retirement but too young to qualify for Medicare (i.e., younger than 65). Such a policy would surely be appealing to the near elderly (those between the age of 55 and 64) because those individuals are particularly vulnerable to health shocks, and as a consequence, more expensive to insure. Opening up Medicare's risk pool to this cohort obviates the problem of access to insurance, but perhaps a more fair question to ask is whether access to care (rather than insurance) is really a problem for these individuals. Therefore, policy makers should consider whether the utilization of medical care is compromised during this period of vulnerability in the twilight of an individual's working years. Many health economists have written about the hard choices these individuals must make toward the end of their careers. Although this period is traditionally supposed to be a time for planning retirement or scaling back work duties, many individuals may make labor market decisions that adversely impact their health status. Therefore, the intent of this research is to examine the effect of labor market transitions of the near elderly on access to care to see whether these transitions lead to poorer access. |