Let Them Have Choice: Gains from Shifting Away from Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance and toward an Individual Exchange

Leemore Dafny, Kate Ho and Mauricio Varela

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2013, vol. 5, issue 1, 32-58

Abstract: Most nonelderly Americans purchase health insurance through their employers, which sponsor a limited number of plans. Using a panel dataset representing over ten million insured lives, we estimate employees' preferences for different health plans and use the estimates to predict their choices if more plans were made available to them on the same terms, i.e., with equivalent subsidies and at large-group prices. Using conservative assumptions, we estimate a median welfare gain of 13 percent of premiums. A proper accounting of the costs and benefits of a transition from employer-sponsored to individually-purchased insurance should include this nontrivial gain. (JEL G22, I13, J32)

JEL-codes: G22 I13 J32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.5.1.32
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/pol.5.1.32 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/pol/data/2010-0116_data.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Let them Have Choice: Gains from Shifting Away from Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance and Toward an Individual Exchange (2010)
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:aea:aejpol:v:5:y:2013:i:1:p:32-58

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy is currently edited by Matthew Shapiro

More articles in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().