The Effect of Massachusetts' Health Reform on Employer-Sponsored Insurance Premiums

Cogan John F (), Hubbard R. Glenn () and Kessler Daniel ()
Additional contact information
Cogan John F: Stanford University
Hubbard R. Glenn: Graduate School of Business of Columbia University
Kessler Daniel: Stanford University

Forum for Health Economics & Policy, 2010, vol. 13, issue 2, 8

Abstract: In this paper, we use publicly available data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Insurance Component (MEPS-IC) to investigate the effect of Massachusetts' health reform plan on employer-sponsored insurance premiums. We tabulate premium growth for private-sector employers in Massachusetts and the United States as a whole for 2004 - 2008. We estimate the effect of the plan as the difference in premium growth between Massachusetts and the United States between 2006 and 2008--that is, before versus after the plan--over and above the difference in premium growth for 2004 to 2006. We find that health reform in Massachusetts increased single-coverage employer-sponsored insurance premiums by about 6 percent, or $262. Although our research design has important limitations, it does suggest that policy makers should be concerned about the consequences of health reform for the cost of private insurance.

Keywords: health; reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.2202/1558-9544.1204

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