Policyholder Variables. The values of three variables describing the policyholder do not vary across the records of the persons covered by the plan, regardless of whether the covered person is the policyholder. The variable DECPHLDR indicates the policyholder is deceased. The variable OUTHLDR indicates the policyholder resides outside the RU. In each case, there are no person-level records on a person- level PUF, even though the PRPL file has a record for the policyholder as a covered-person (that is, a record where PHOLDER=1). The variable NOPUFLG indicates there is another reason the policyholder does not have a record on a person-level PUF. The purpose of these flags is to explain any difficulty users may have linking policyholder information onto the PRPL file. These variables do not, however, measure mortality or policyholders’ leaving household, which should instead be obtained from the PSTATUS variables on the person-level files. (For example, policyholders who die between rounds 1 (Panel 8) or 3 (Panel 7) and the end of 2003 will have records on HC-064 and HC-073, and PUF64FLG and PUF73FLG will be set to 1.)
Policyholder Variables. The values of three variables describing the policyholder do not vary across the records of the persons covered by the plan, regardless of whether the covered person is the policyholder. The variable DECPHLDR indicates the policyholder is deceased. The variable OUTPHLDR indicates the policyholder resides outside the RU. In each case, there are no person-level records for the policyholder on any of the person-level PUF files, even though the PRPL file has a record for the policyholder as a covered person (that is, a record where PHOLDER=1). Instead, the person identifier portion of the coverage record identifier is set to either ‘901’ indicating a deceased policyholder or ‘902’ indicating a policyholder residing outside the RU. Through Panel 23 Round 8, Panel 24 Round 6, Panel 25 Round 4, and Panel 26 Round 2, a member of the dwelling unit could be selected as the policyholder at OE10 after the policyholder left the RU. In these cases, the person identifier of the policyholder changed from ‘902’ to the person identifier of the selected dwelling unit member. Due to a CAPI change, this selection at OE10 is no longer possible. Previously, the variable PHLDRCHNG indicated whether there was a change between rounds in the policyholder’s status of residing within the RU. With the removal of OE10, PHLDRCHNG was dropped from this file. Some continuing coverage may exist where a policyholder was selected at OE10. OUTPHLDR continues to identify only those policies where the person identifier of the policyholder is set to “902”; OUTPHLDR will be set to 2 NO in cases where a member of the dwelling unit was selected as the policyholder at OE10 in a subsequent round. As noted above, InsurPrivIDEX does not change across rounds for the same policy and thus may be used to link coverage records across rounds. The variable NOPUFLG indicates there is another reason the policyholder does not have a record on a person-level PUF. The purpose of these flags is to explain any difficulty users may have linking policyholder information onto the PRPL file. These variables do not, however, measure mortality or policyholders’ leaving the household, which should instead be obtained from the PSTATS variables on the person-level file. For example, policyholders who die between Round 1 (Panel 26) or Round 3 (Panel 25) or Round 5 (Panel 24) or Round 7 (Panel 23) and the end of 2021 will have records on HC-233, and FYFLG will be set to 1 YES.
