Offers or Take-up: Explaining Minorities’ Lower Health Insurance Coverage

There is considerable evidence that minorities are less likely than whites to be covered under employment-based health insurance. In 2001, rates of Hispanic full-time workers were 21 and 15 percentage points lower than those of non-Hispanic white men and women. For policy purposes, understanding whether these disparities are generated by differences in the likelihood of being in a job offering coverage or in decisions regarding take-up of offered coverage is critical. We find significant effects of race and ethnicity on offers but not on take-up, controlling for job and demographic characteristics including nativity. Magnitudes of these effects differ by gender and household composition.