This report is a comprehensive and systematic assessment of the income data and their utility for policy-related analyses in eight major surveys: the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP); the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS); the American Community Survey (ACS); the Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS); the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS); the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey Cost and Use files (MCBS); the Health and Retirement Study (HRS); and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).

The assessment focuses on three issues:

• The quality and usability of each survey’s income and poverty data for policy-related
• analyses
• The overall impact of different design and methodological approaches
• Specific design and processing choices that may be related to the quality and utility of
• income and poverty data in each survey

This report was prepared for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by Researchers at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.  December 2008.

This report provides a comparison of four national surveys that measure health insurance coverage to asess fundamental methodological issues that impact the variation in health insurance coverage estimates seen among these surveys.  The surveys compared include the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS), the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey’s Household Component (MEPS), and six state surveys.   This report was prepared by SHADAC researchers for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). November 2007.

Nielsen RB, Davern M, Jones, Jr. A and Boies JL. 2009. "Complex Sample Design Effects and Health Insurance Variance Estimation." Journal of Consumer Affairs, 43(2):  346-66.

Davern M, Klerman JA, Baugh D, Call KT and Greenberg G. 2009. "An Examination of the Medicaid Undercount in the Current Population Survey (CPS): Preliminary Results from Record Linking." Health Services Research, 44(3): 965-987.

This article examines why the Current Population Survey (CPS) estimates of Medicaid enrollment are significantly lower than actual Medicaid enrollment counts. Inaccurate Medicaid enrollment estimates pose a problem since data from the CPS is frequently used in health policy and research.

The authors linked data from the 2000–2002 Medicaid Statistical Information System and the 2001–2002 Current Population Survey. They analyzed the frequency of incorrect answers to the CPS question on Medicaid enrollment and frequency of imperfect concept alignment.

Key Findings:

• The CPS estimates of Medicaid enrollment are 43 percent lower than actual Medicaid enrollment. The bulk of this underestimation is due to inaccurate responses to the survey question on Medicaid status.
• 43 percent of CPS respondents enrolled in Medicaid did not indicate their enrollment in Medicaid on the CPS question about Medicaid status, and another 17 percent reported being uninsured despite being enrolled in Medicaid.
• 12 percent of the discrepancy between the CPS and raw Medicaid enrollment counts is due to imperfect concept alignments, including people in Medicaid not included in the CPS sample size and people enrolled in Medicaid in multiple states.

The CPS survey results are a poor measure of Medicaid enrollment, largely due to Medicaid enrollees not responding accurately to questions about their enrollment status.

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Blewett LA, Davidson G, Rodin H, and Davern M. 2009. "Measuring Adequacy of Coverage for the Privately Insured: New State Estimates to Monitor Trends in Health Insurance Coverage." Medical Care Research and Review, 66(2): 167-180.