Sharing the Burden of Subsidization: Evidence on Pass-Through from a Subsidy Revision in Medicare Part D

Colleen Carey

No 28529, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In many federally-subsidized insurance markets, insurers are subsidized on the basis of enrollee characteristics; in principle, subsidies that are "risk adjusted" in this way compensate insurers for ex ante differences in expected cost. Between 2010 and 2011, the subsidies in Medicare Part D were revised, sharply changing the subsidy for diagnoses and demographic characteristics. This paper uses the response of insurers to the subsidy update to estimate pass-through of government subsidies to two insurer choice variables: premiums and out-of-pocket costs. We find that diagnostic subsidies are passed-through at a rate of 40% to the out-of-pocket costs for relevant drugs. Premiums are not responsive to overall subsidies, but do reflect changes in the demographic component of subsidies.

JEL-codes: H51 I11 L13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ias
Note: EH
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Published as Colleen Carey, 2021. "Sharing the burden of subsidization: Evidence on pass-through from a subsidy revision in Medicare Part D," Journal of Public Economics, vol 198.

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