UsingSHADACEnhancedCurrentPopulationSurveyHealth

InsuranceCoverageMicrodataVariables
March2010

Introduction
SHADACresearchershavedevelopedanenhancedtimeseriestoenableaharmonizedviewofhealth
insurancecoverageovertimeusingtheCurrentPopulationSurveyAnnualSocialandEconomic
Supplement(CPS).TheestimatesreleasedbytheCensusBureaudonotaccountforsome
methodologicalchangesthatresultinknownconsistencyproblems.ResearchconductedbySHADAC
since2000hasproventhattheseandotherproblemsimpacthealthinsurancecoverageestimates.As
such,theenhancedestimatesareusefulforpolicyanalysis.

FormoreinformationonthechangesappliedwiththisadjustmentseeSHADACstechnicalbrief,
SHADACEnhancedCurrentPopulationSurveyHealthInsuranceCoverageEstimates:ASummaryof
HistoricalAdjustments,availableat:
http://www.shadac.org/files/shadac/publications/TechBrief_CPSEnhanced.pdf

TheSHADACenhancedCPSvariablesarenotavailablefromtheCensusBureaudataproducts.Instead,
SHADAChasworkedwiththeMinnesotaPopulationCentertoprovidethevariablesattheIPUMSCPS
datadownloadsite,http://cps.ipums.org/cps/.Thistechnicalbriefprovidesinformationonhowto
locateandusetheenhancedvariables.

HowtoDownloadtheEnhancedMicrodata
Theenhancedmicrodatavariablesareasetofeightvariablesandaweightingvariable.
Theeightvariablesaresummaryrollupsofthemajortypesofinsurancecoverage(Summary
HealthInsuranceVariables).
Theenhancedweightingvariableisalsoneededtocreateaconsistenttimeseries(Summary
HealthInsuranceWeight).

Toproducetheenhancedestimates,usethesummaryhealthinsurancevariables,plusanyother
variablesyouwant,andweighttheestimatesusingtheenhancedweight.

AllvariablesareavailablefordownloadfromtheIPUMSwebsite,aresourceofintegratedpublicuse
datamaintainedbytheMinnesotaPopulationCenter.Theseinstructionswillhelpyougetstarted.

UserswhoarefamiliarwithIPUMScanproceedtotheQuickstartInstructions.

UserswhoarenewtoIPUMSshouldgototheDetailedInstructions.

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QUICKSTART(foruserswhoarealreadyfamiliarwithIPUMS):

Goto:http://cps.ipums.org/cps/

TheSHADACenhancedvariablesarereferredtoasSummaryHealthInsuranceVariablesandarelisted
underPersonRecords.Thesevariablesareconsolidatedrollupsofthemaintypesofinsurance.Each
variablehasadescriptionlinkwithdetailedinformationonhowitiscompiled.Thereare8variables,
shownbelow.

VariableName

Description

HCOVANY
Anyinsurance,publicorprivate(summary)
HCOVPRIV
Anyprivateinsurance(summary)
HINSEMP
Employersponsoredinsurance(summary)
HINSPUR
Individuallypurchasedinsurance(summary)
HCOVPUB
Anypublicinsurance(summary)
HINSCAID
AnyMedicaid/SCHIP/otherpublicinsurance(summary)
HINSCARE
Medicarecoverage(summary)
HINSMIL
Anymilitaryinsurance(summary)

Youalsoneedtodownloadanduseanenhancedperson weight(listedintheTechnical
Variables(Person)section:
HINSWT
Summaryhealthinsuranceweight

Note:youcanusethesummaryvariablewiththeregularweight(PERWT),butresultswillnot
fullyreflecttheenhancedadjustments.

Aschematicdiagramofthesummaryhealthinsurancevariablesfollows:
Publicor
Private

Summary

Private
(HCOVPRIV)
Coveredbyany

type(HCOVANY)
Public
(HCOVPUB)

IPUMSEnhanced
Variable

TypeofInsurance
(1)Employersponsored

HINSEMP

(2)Individuallypurchased

HINSPUR

(Coveredbysomeone
outsidethehome)

(unavailablein
summaryvariables)

(3)AnyMedicaid/SCHIP/other
publicinsurance

HINSCAID

(4)Medicare

HINSCARE

(5)Military

HINSMIL

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DETAILEDINSTRUCTIONS(foruserswhoareNOTfamiliarwithIPUMS):

Goto:http://cps.ipums.org/cps/

Yourpageshouldlooksomethinglikethis:

ThemainsectionsofinterestareDATAandDOCUMENTATION.Youwillwanttofamiliarizeyourself
withIPUMSintheDocumentationsection.

DOCUMENTATION
First,reviewtheFAQtogetbackgroundinformationonIPUMS.

Next,theVariablespageistheprimarytoolforexploringthecontentsofIPUMSCPS.
Onthevariablespage,clickingonavariablenamebringsupitsdocumentation.Itcontainsa
descriptionofthevariableanddiscussionsofcomparabilityissuesovertime.
o NotethatvariablesnamesdonotmatchthoseoftheCPSfilesreleasedbytheCensus
Bureau.IPUMShasadoptedanamingconventiontoprovidemoredescriptive
informationthatisconsistentovertime.
Thevariablespagealsohasdirectlinkstothecodespageforeachvariable.

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Thecodespageshowsthecodingstructureandlabelsforavariableandtheavailability
ofcategoriesacrosssamples.Thesecategoriescansuggestthetypesofresearch
possiblewithagivensample.

TheSamplespageprovideslinkstoinformationonthesizesoftheCPSsamples,characteristicsofthe
samples,anddifferencesbetweenthesamplingmethodsusedforthecensusandtheCPS.
NotethattheIPUMSsamplefor2001doesnotincludeanoversampleconductedfortheASEC
thatprovideshighersamplesizeforthehealthinsuranceestimates.Thereareplanstoaddthis
oversampleatsomepointlaterin2010.Inthemeantime,summarytablesareavailableat
SHADACsDataCenter(www.shadac.org/datacenter).
o The2001oversampleisavailablefromtheCensusBureau,althoughthevariablenames
willnotmatch.

TheSHADACenhancedvariablesarereferredtoasSummaryHealthInsuranceVariablesandarelisted
underPersonRecords.Thesevariablesareconsolidatedrollupsofthemaintypesofinsurance.Each
variablehasadescriptionlinkwithdetailedinformationonhowitiscompiled.Thereare8variables,
shownbelow.

VariableName

Description

HCOVANY
Anyinsurance,publicorprivate(summary)
HCOVPRIV
Anyprivateinsurance(summary)
HINSEMP
Employersponsoredinsurance(summary)
HINSPUR
Individuallypurchasedinsurance(summary)
HCOVPUB
Anypublicinsurance(summary)
HINSCAID
AnyMedicaid/SCHIP/otherpublicinsurance(summary)
HINSCARE
Medicarecoverage(summary)
HINSMIL
Anymilitaryinsurance(summary)

Youalsoneedtodownloadanduseaspecialweight(listedintheTechnicalVariables
(Person)section:
HINSWT
Summaryhealthinsuranceweight

Note:youcanusethesummaryvariablewiththeregularweight(PERWT),butresultswillnot
fullyreflecttheenhancedadjustments.

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Aschematicdiagramofthesummaryhealthinsurancevariablesfollows:
Publicor
Private

Summary

Private
(HCOVPRIV)
Coveredbyany

type(HCOVANY)
Public
(HCOVPUB)

IPUMSEnhanced
Variable

TypeofInsurance
(1)Employersponsored

HINSEMP

(2)Individuallypurchased

HINSPUR

(Coveredbysomeone
outsidethehome)

(unavailablein
summaryvariables)

(3)AnyMedicaid/SCHIP/other
publicinsurance

HINSCAID

(4)Medicare

HINSCARE

(5)Military

HINSMIL

DATA
VisittheDatasectiontocreateadataextract.Beforecreatinganextractyoumustregisterasauser.
ProceedtoCPSregistrationundertheDatanavigationsection.
Ifyouarealreadyaregistereduser,proceedtologin.
IfyouareNOTaregistereduser,clicktheoptiontoapplyforaccess.

CreatinganExtractandDownloadingData
Afteryouhaveregistered/loggedin,youcanclickon"createanextract"andusethedataaccesssystem.
Tostart,userscanreferenceourinstructionsfortheextractionsystem.Instructionsareavailableat:
http://cps.ipums.org/cps/instructions.shtml
Foreachextractionyouwillberequiredtocompleteashortformofdescriptiveinformation.
ThisisasimpleapplicationdesignedtoprovideIPUMSstaffwithanunderstandingofuser
profiles,andallinformationiskeptconfidential.
Thewebsitewalksyouthroughthevariableselection.Whenallofyourvariablesarechosen,
clicksubmittoasummaryofyourextractrequest.

Uponsubmissionyouwillbeshownasummaryofyourdataextractforyourreview:

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Afterproceedingfromthesummaryreview,youwillreceiveanemailconfirmationwithalinkto
yourextraction.Thisshouldarrivewithinafewminutes.TheemailwillcomefromCPSProject
[ipums@pop.umn.edu].

Thedatadownloadlinkprovidesyourrequestnumber,dateofcreation,data,codebook,andcommand
fileforoneofthreestatisticalpackages(SPSS,SASandStata).Yourdownloadisavailablefor72hours.

TheIPUMSextractsystemdoesnotprovidedataintheformatofanyparticularstatisticspackage.Data
areprovidedasrawASCIIdatainzippedfileswithseparatecommandfilesnecessaryforreadingtheraw
dataintowhicheverstatisticalprogramyouspecifyinStep1oftheextractprocess(eitherSPSS,Stata,or
SAS).

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