Who pays for the costs of chronic conditions? In this paper, we examine whether 50–64-year old workers covered by employer-sponsored insurance bear healthcare costs of chronic conditions in the form of lower wages. Using a difference-in-differences approach with data from the Health and Retirement Study, we find that workers with chronic diseases receive significantly lower wages than healthy workers when they are covered by employer-sponsored insurance. Our findings suggest that higher healthcare costs of chronic conditions can explain the substantial part of the wage gap between workers with and without chronic diseases.

中文翻译：

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慢性病医疗费用的发生率

谁支付慢性病的费用？在本文中，我们研究了由雇主赞助的保险承保的 50-64 岁工人是否以较低工资的形式承担慢性病的医疗保健费用。我们对健康与退休研究的数据使用差异中的差异方法，我们发现患有慢性病的工人在获得雇主赞助的保险时获得的工资明显低于健康工人。我们的研究结果表明，慢性病较高的医疗保健成本可以解释患有和未患有慢性病的工人之间工资差距的很大一部分。