application). This dissertation seeks to examine the impact of changing socio-economic structure on Russian elderly men and women's health conditions and access to health care using data from the 1992 and 1994 waves of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS). With privatization and increased diversity in employment patterns, this investigator expect s workers currently employed in or retired from government enterprises to have greater levels of health benefits than workers in private firms, although it seems possible that the higher incomes earned in private firms may offset some decline in benefits. She expects the differences in health benefits to vary by age, sex, and ethnicity. This project will address the following questions: (1) Are there differences in earnings and access to health benefits among workers employed in Russian owned enterprises, foreign enterprises and government owned enterprises? (2) Are there cohort differences in access to health benefits? (3) Are there gender differences in access to health benefits? (4) To what extent do these differences, if any, translate into utilization of health services for cardiovascular diseases?
