Census's Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) nearly doubles the elderly poverty rate compared to the "Official" Poverty Measure (OPM), a result of the SPM subtraction of medical out-of-pocket (MOOP) expenditures from income. Neither the SPM nor OPM counts health benefits or assets as resources....

Census's Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) nearly doubles the elderly poverty rate compared to the "Official" Poverty Measure (OPM), a result of the SPM subtraction of medical out-of-pocket (MOOP) expenditures from income. Neither the SPM nor OPM counts health benefits or assets as resources....

US Census Bureau poverty measures do not include an explicit need for health care or insurance nor do they consider health insurance benefits to be resources. Consequently, they cannot measure the direct impact of health insurance benefits on poverty. This paper reviews conceptual and practical...

US Census Bureau poverty measures do not include an explicit need for health care or insurance nor do they consider health insurance benefits to be resources. Consequently, they cannot measure the direct impact of health insurance benefits on poverty. This paper reviews conceptual and practical...

We develop and implement what we believe is the first conceptually valid health-inclusive poverty measure (HIPM)—a measure that includes health care or insurance in the poverty needs threshold and health insurance benefits in family resources—and we discuss its limitations. Building on the...