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Shock, but no shift: Hospitals' responses to changes in patient insurance mix

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  • Wagner, Kathryn L.

Abstract

Medicaid reimburses healthcare providers for services at a lower rate than any other type of insurance coverage. To account for the burden of treating Medicaid patients, providers claim that they must cost-shift by raising the rates of individuals covered by private insurance. Previous investigations of cost-shifting has produced mixed results. In this paper, I exploit a disabled Medicaid expansion where crowd-out was complete to investigate cost-shifting. I find that hospitals reduce the charge rates of the privately insured. Given that Medicaid is expanding in several states under the Affordable Care Act, these results may alleviate cost-shifting concerns of the reform.

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  • Wagner, Kathryn L., 2016. "Shock, but no shift: Hospitals' responses to changes in patient insurance mix," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 46-58.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:49:y:2016:i:c:p:46-58
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2016.06.008
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    Cited by:

    1. Ghosh, Ausmita & Simon, Kosali & Sommers, Benjamin D., 2019. "The Effect of Health Insurance on Prescription Drug Use Among Low-Income Adults:Evidence from Recent Medicaid Expansions," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 64-80.
    2. Raphaël Cottin, 2018. "Free health care for the poor: a good way to achieve universal health coverage? Evidence from Morocco," Working Papers DT/2018/16, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    3. Wagner Kathryn L., 2021. "Public Health Insurance and Impacts on Crime Incidences and Mental Health," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 21(2), pages 469-510, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Medicaid; Health insurance; Hospitals; Cost shifting; Disability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private

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