An Experimental Investigation of Health Insurance Policy and Behavior

J Tracy, Hillard Kaplan, Kevin James and Stephen Rassenti
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Kevin James: Economic Science Institute, Chapman University

Working Papers from Chapman University, Economic Science Institute

Abstract: We introduce a new experimental approach to measuring the effects of health insurance policy alternatives on behavior and health outcomes over the life course. Cash-motivated subjects are placed in a virtual environment where they earn income and allocate it across multi-period lives. We compare behavior across age, income and insurance plans—one priced according to an individual’s expected cost and the other uniformly priced through employer-implemented cost sharing. We find that 1) subjects in the employer-implemented plan purchased insurance at higher rates; 2) the employer-based plan reduced differences due to income and age; 3) subjects in the actuarial plan engaged in more health-promoting behaviors, but still below optimal levels, and did save at the level required, so did realize the full benefits of the plan. Subjects had more difficulty optimizing choices in the Actuarial treatment, because it required more long term planning and evaluating benefits that compounded over time. Contrary, to model predictions, the actuarial priced insurance plan did not increase utility relative to the employer-based plan.

Keywords: Health insurance; Moral Hazard; Inter-generational; Subsidies; Actuarially fair; Employer-based (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I12 I13 I14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-exp and nep-ias
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:chu:wpaper:19-16

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