Health risk and access to employer-provided health insurance.

The attractiveness of a job offering health benefits increases with a worker's expected medical expenditures. At the same time, employers have an incentive to screen out high-risk workers. Evidence from the 1984 Survey of Income and Program Participation indicates that employer screening dominates high-risk workers' desire to select jobs that offer insurance. Workers who describe their health as fair or poor, report difficulty with physical tasks, or have a work-related disability are less likely to receive employer-provided health insurance than healthy workers. Part of this effect is explained by the negative impact of poor health on earnings and labor supply.