Kanika Kapur () (School of Economics, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland) José J. Escarce () (Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA) M Susan Marquis () (RAND, 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202, USA) Kosali I. Simon () (Department of Policy Analysis and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA)
Additional information is available for the following
registered author(s):
Small firms that offer health insurance to their employees may face variable premiums if the firm hires an employee with high-expected health costs. To avoid expensive premium variability, a small firm may attempt to maintain a workforce with low-expected health costs. In addition, workers with high-expected health costs may prefer employment in larger firms with health insurance rather than in smaller firms. This results in employment distortions. We examine the magnitude of these employment distortions in hiring, employment, and separations using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from 1996 to 2001. We find that workers with high-expected health costs are less likely to be new hires in insured small firms and are less likely to be employed in insured small firms. We find no evidence that state small group health insurance reforms designed to restrict insurers' ability to deny coverage and restrict premium variability have reduced the extent of these distortions.
Download Info
To our knowledge, this item is not available for
download. To find whether it is available, there are three
options:
1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online.
2. Check on the provider's web page
whether it is in fact available.
3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be
available.
Volume (Year): 74 (2008) Issue (Month): 3 (January) Pages: 644-664 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract),
plain text
(with abstract),
BibTeX,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF
Find related papers by JEL classification: J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.: