EMPLOYMENT-BASED HEALTH-INSURANCE AND JOB MOBILITY - IS THERE EVIDENCE OF JOB-LOCK

This paper assesses the impact of employer-provided health insurance o n job mobility by exploring the extent to which workers are ''locked'' into their jobs because preexisting conditions exclusions make it exp ensive for individuals with medical problems to relinquish their curre nt health insurance. I estimate the degree of job-lock by comparing th e difference in the turnover rates of those with high and low medical expenses for those with and without employer-provided health insurance . Using data from the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey, I esti mate that job-lock reduces the voluntary turnover rate of those with e mployer-provided health insurance by 25 percent, from 16 percent to 12 percent per year.