This report is of interest to those looking to better understand what recent changes in the health insurance landscape may mean for outcomes that workers experience after their injuries at work. While prior studies focused primarily on understanding whether access to health insurance impacts workers’ incentives to file a claim for workers’ compensation injuries, we know little about the relationship between health insurance and worker outcomes.

In this report, we discuss factors important for studying how expanded access to health insurance coverage may alter the outcomes that workers experience after their injuries. In particular, we first document changes in health insurance coverage rates of the working population between 2008 and 2017, using information from the American Community Survey (ACS). Second, we compare characteristics of injured workers with and without health insurance for non-work-related injuries and discuss what the comparison may reveal about the potential role of health insurance. Finally, we provide new empirical evidence about relationships between health insurance coverage for non-work-related injuries and many outcomes that workers experience after they are injured at work.

Health Insurance and Outcomes of Injured Workers. Bogdan Savych. June 2019. WC-19-21.

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