Health-Related Financial Transfers to Young Adults

Colleen M. Heflin, University of Missouri at Columbia
Ngina Chiteji, Skidmore College
Laura Sloan, University of Missouri at Columbia

In 2008, 26.5 percent of 25-34 year olds were uninsured. At a time when the transition to adulthood is receiving an increasing amount of attention from the social science research community, we focus on the financial consequence to parents of institutional arrangements in the health care sector. We use nationally representative longitudinal data from the Panel study of Income Dynamics to examine if young adult reports of monetary transfers from relatives are higher when the young adult has a health crisis. We examine both the probability of receiving any financial transfer as well as the value of the transfer itself using a variety of modeling strategies that include controls for time-invariant unmeasured heterogeneity. Results will further our understanding of how the current health care arrangement effects intergenerational financial transfers.