Do people shift their use of health services over time to take advantage of insurance?

This paper provides a test of the hypothesis that people shift their consumption of health services to time periods when they have more generous insurance coverage, in order to take advantage of third-party payment. We use data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to compare utilization rates for people in transition between being insured and being uninsured to those of people who are continuously insured and continuously uninsured. We find little support for the hypothesis that people anticipate changes in their insurance status and arrange their health care consumption accordingly.