ECONOMIC WELL‐BEING AMONG OLDER LATINOS

Using data from the 1990 Latino sample of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the 1988 National Survey of Elderly Hispanics, this research examines ethnic variation in the economic well‐being of older Latinos. Older Puerto Ricans are less economically secure than Cubans or Mexican Americans, reporting lower median incomes, higher rates of poverty, and disproportionate enrollments in the state health insurance program. We decompose household income into its sources to provide insight in ethnic differences in economic security and highlight how federal cutbacks in social programs for the elderly will uniquely impact each Latino ethnic group. The results show that older Puerto Ricans remain most vulnerable to the negative consequences of changing social policies. Health insurance coverage varies by ethnicity, revealing that access to health care is most limited among older Cubans. Clearly, each Latino ethnic group present a distinctive economic profile for older adults, profiles which call for policies guarding economic security to be tailored to each ethnic group.