By David Liu, Ph.D.

Giving older employees health insurance may not help increase their productivity, at least does not reduce illness-related absenteeism, according to a study released in Aug 2011 in Applied Economics.

Xiao Xua and Gail A. Jensenb at University of Michigan Medical School looked at data from 1780 workers in the United states aged 52 to 62, who were part of the 2004 to 2006 Health and Retirement Study to see whether having health insurance reduces illness-related absenteeism among the U.S. older workers.

During a period of more than 12 months, older insured workers were found as likely as those who did not have health insurance to miss work days due to illness.  And there were no differences in the number of days missed due to illness between insured and uninsured workers.

The researchers found that there was a strong association between poor baseline health, onset of new diseases and longer hospitalization and an increased probability of older workers' absenteeism at work.

The study suggests that having health insurance does not affect illness-related absenteeism among older workers in the United States.