Let them Have Choice: Gains from Shifting Away from Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance and Toward an Individual Exchange — by Leemore Dafny, Katherine Ho, Mauricio Varela
Posted: February 1, 2010 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance, Health Savings Accounts, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Let them Have Choice: Gains from Shifting Away from Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance and Toward an Individual Exchange — by Leemore Dafny, Katherine Ho, Mauricio Varela
Most non-elderly Americans purchase insurance through their employers, which sponsor a limited number of plans. We estimate how much employees would be willing to pay for the right to apply their employer subsidy to the plan of their choosing. We make use of a proprietary dataset containing information on plan offerings and enrollment for 800+ large employers between 1998 and 2006; the dataset represents over 10 million Americans annually. We estimate a model of employee preferences using the set of plans they are offered. Using the estimated parameters from this model, we predict employees’ choices in a hypothetical world in which additional plans in a market are available to them on the same terms, i.e. tax-free and subsidized by their employers. Holding employer outlays constant, we estimate that the median welfare gain from expanding choice amounts to roughly 20 percent of premiums. For the vast majority of employee groups and alternative model specifications, the gains from choice are likely to outweigh potential premium increases associated with a transition from large group to individual pricing.
Daniel J. SmithSent Via Mobile Phone
Why Can’t We Agree on How to Reform Health Care?
Posted: January 11, 2010 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance, Health Savings Accounts, Methodology, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Why Can’t We Agree on How to Reform Health Care?
Congress Declares War on HSAs
Posted: January 5, 2010 Filed under: Health, Health Care, Health Insurance, Health Savings Accounts, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Congress Declares War on HSAs
Will Freeland on Health Care in MDN
Posted: November 9, 2009 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance, Health Savings Accounts Leave a comment »http://ourmidland.com/articles/2009/11/08/opinion/editorials/doc4af6480b5f62d952558662.txt
Yes, Mr. President A Free Market Can Fix Health Care
Posted: October 22, 2009 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance, Health Savings Accounts Leave a comment »http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa650.pdf
