when looking at the health insurance tab in IPUMS-CPS, it seems that all of the variables ask about the previous year. For example, INCLUGH " indicates whether the respondent was included (i.e., was a policyholder) in a group health insurance plan related to a job that person held during the previous calendar year." In my thesis I am trying to document changes in healthcare over the years. My issue is that I am also using variables like Faminc, which do not specify that the data is from “the previous calendar year”. To summarize how do I use ASEC 2016 data if some variables are about the previous year while some are asked about the current year? Am I to assume that the person who answers yes for Inclugh in 2016 is saying that they are also currently covered in an employer group health plan.
HIMCAID identifies if the respondent was covered by Medicaid during the previous calendar year. So in the case of the 2016 ASEC sample, the reference year is 2015. FAMINC records total family income from the previous 12 months, which is slightly different than the previous calendar year. For a better comparison, you may want to use HHINCOME - which is a sum of INCTOT of all adults in the household. Importantly, the reference period for INCTOT is the previous calendar year. Generally speaking, data recorded in the ASEC survey is in reference to the previous calendar year. So it is currently not possible to know who was covered in 2016.
I hope this helps.