Americans increasingly spend money on healthcare once they receive their tax refund payment, suggests a report from JPMorgan Chase Institute.
For the report, JPMC Institute used data on 1.2 million households receiving tax refunds in 2016 to determine when various socioeconomic and demographic groups file their taxes and how tax refunds affect spending on healthcare.
Here are five findings.
1. Lower-income and younger tax filers owed refunds filed earlier in the season, according to the report. Tax filers poised to receive larger refunds also were more likely to file earlier.
2. Tax filers who filed early, younger people, women and lower-income people all spent more on healthcare after they received their tax refunds.
3. Deferred healthcare spending increased 38 percent among those who filed in February in the 76 days after the tax refund, compared to the 76-day period prior to the refund. This is higher than the 11.5 percent among those who filed in April or May. Deferred healthcare spending increased 43.7 percent among those ages 18 to 25, 24.2 percent among women and 29.6 percent among the lowest income people in the 76 days after the refund.
4. The report also showed earlier filers, women and lower-income people used a larger portion of their deferred healthcare spending on deferred care, defined as "in-person payments at healthcare service providers." For example, nearly 63.6 percent of healthcare spending among those who filed in February represented deferred care compared to 54.6 percent among those who filed in April or May.
5. Additionally, healthcare spending was more likely to increase in dollar terms after the refund even among higher-income tax filers, according to JPMC Institute.
Read more about the findings here.
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