“Sticker Shock” in Individual Insurance under Health Reform?

Mark Pauly (), Scott Harrington and Adam Leive
Additional contact information
Mark Pauly: University of Pennsylvania
Scott Harrington: University of Pennsylvania

American Journal of Health Economics, 2015, vol. 1, issue 4, 494-514

Abstract: We provide estimates of changes in the annual expected price for insured medical care—defined as the sum of premiums and expected out-of-pocket payments—after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) among consumers who previously bought individual insurance. Using the best available data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), we find that average prices did not increase substantially in California and in states with federally run exchanges. Our central estimates based on MEPS data on out-of-pocket payments suggest that average prices would not change significantly if the lowest-priced Bronze plan were selected, whereas prices would increase from 8 to 15 percent if the second-lowest-priced Silver plan were selected. (Alternative estimates using CPS data on out-of-pocket spending suggest somewhat higher price increases.) Potentially offsetting changes in the risk premium associated with moving from pre-reform coverage to either Bronze or Silver coverage are estimated to be generally small for younger buyers, but offset price increases for some older buyers, especially older women.

Keywords: American; health; health economics; health policy; incentives; health behaviors; health care; insurance coverage; individual consumer; younger buyers; older buyers; pre-reform; price increases; California (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I13 I14 I18 I32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AJHE_a_00027 link to full text PDF (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: "Sticker Shock" in Individual Insurance under Health Reform (2014)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tpr:amjhec:v:1:y:2015:i:4:p:494-514

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Health Economics is currently edited by Thomas Buchmueller

More articles in American Journal of Health Economics from MIT Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by The MIT Press ().