TABLE 2.

Health Insurance and Retirement Decisions

Study	Key Findings
Hurd and McGarry 1993	Workers who have retiree health insurance that is at least partially funded by their employers are 18% to 24% less likely to be working full time beyond age 62 than are workers without health insurance.
Karoly and Rogowski 1994	The probability of early retirement increases by 50%, or 9 percentage points, among workers with access to health insurance. The availability of health insurance in addition to employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) increases the likelihood of early retirement.
Gruber and Madrian 1993	There is a sizable and significant effect of continuation coverage on retirement among males age 55 to 64.
Madrian 1994a	Individuals with retiree health insurance retire five to 16 months earlier than those without ESI. The probability of retiring before age 65 is between 7 and 15 percentage points higher for workers with retiree health insurance.
Gustman and Steinmeier 1994	Employment-based health benefits lower retirement age by 1.3 months. The effect triples when the value of health benefits to workers is used rather than cost to employer.
Lumsdaine, Stock, and Wise 1994	Retiree health benefits have no impact on retirement behavior.
Gruber and Madrian 1995	Continuation of coverage group rate subsidies encourage early retirement for those not yet eligible for Medicare. The probability of retiring increases 32% (2.2 percentage points) for each additional year of continued coverage.
Blau and Gilleskie 1997	Among men ages 51 to 62, the availability of retiree health benefits increased the rate of retirement by 2 percentage points per year when retirees were required to contribute to the cost of coverage, and 6 percentage points per year when they were not, an increase of between 26% and 80% in the retirement probability. The rate of retirement increases with age.
Rust and Phelan 1997	Men aged 60 to 61 with retiree health insurance were as much as 10 percentage points more likely to retire than men without such insurance.
Fronstin 1999b	Postretirement pension benefits and the availability of retiree health benefits have a significant influence on workers’ retirement age expectations.
Rogowski and Karoly 2000	Workers with access to retiree health benefits were 68% more likely to retire than were their counterparts without access to ESI.

Note: These studies were reviewed in Fronstin 1999a, 7–11.