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Price and the Health Plan Choices of Retirees

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Author Info
Thomas C. Buchmueller

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Abstract

This study analyzes health plan choices of retirees in an employer-sponsored health benefits program that resembles "premium support" models proposed for Medicare. In this program, out-of-pocket premiums depend on when an individual retired and his or her years of service as of that date. Since this price variation is exogenous to unobserved plan attributes and retiree characteristics, it possible to obtain unbiased premium elasticity estimates. The results indicate a significantly negative effect of premiums. The implied elasticities are at the low end of the range found in previous studies on active employees.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 11395.

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Date of creation: Jun 2005
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11395

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

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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.:
  1. Strombom, Bruce A. & Buchmueller, Thomas C. & Feldstein, Paul J., 2002. "Switching costs, price sensitivity and health plan choice," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 89-116, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. David M. Cutler & Sarah J. Reber, 1998. "Paying For Health Insurance: The Trade-Off Between Competition And Adverse Selection," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 113(2), pages 433-466, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Wedig, Gerard J. & Tai-Seale, Ming, 2002. "The effect of report cards on consumer choice in the health insurance market," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 1031-1048, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Michael Chernew & Gautam Gowrisankaran & Dennis P. Scanlon, 2002. "Learning and the value of information: the case of health plan report cards," Working Papers in Applied Economic Theory 2002-17, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. [Downloadable!]
  5. Daniel McFadden & Kenneth Train, 2000. "Mixed MNL models for discrete response," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(5), pages 447-470. [Downloadable!]
  6. Jonathan Gruber & Ebonya Washington, 2003. "Subsidies to Employee Health Insurance Premiums and the Health Insurance Market," NBER Working Papers 9567, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Kenneth Train, 2003. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Online economics textbooks, SUNY-Oswego, Department of Economics, number emetr2, March. [Downloadable!]
  8. Melissa W. Barringer & Olivia S. Mitchell, . "Workers' Preferences Among Company-Provided Health Insurance Plans," Pension Research Council Working Papers 94-5, Wharton School Pension Research Council, University of Pennsylvania.
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  9. Harris, Katherine M. & Keane, Michael P., 1998. "A model of health plan choice:: Inferring preferences and perceptions from a combination of revealed preference and attitudinal data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1-2), pages 131-157, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Beaulieu, Nancy Dean, 2002. "Quality information and consumer health plan choices," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 43-63, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Gruber, Jonathan & Washington, Ebonya, 2005. "Subsidies to employee health insurance premiums and the health insurance market," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 253-276, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. David M. Cutler, 2003. "Employee Costs and the Decline in Health Insurance Coverage," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, Volume 6, pages 27-54 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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  13. David M. Cutler, 2003. "Employee Costs and the Decline in Health Insurance Coverage," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 6. [Downloadable!]
  14. Samuelson, William & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1988. " Status Quo Bias in Decision Making," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 7-59, March.
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  1. Rudy Douven & Harm Lieverdink & Marco Ligthart & Ivan Vermeulen, 2007. "Measuring annual price elasticities in Dutch health insurance: A new method," CPB Discussion Papers 90, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. [Downloadable!]
  2. Katherine Ho, 2005. "The Welfare Effects of Restricted Hospital Choice in the US Medical Care Market," NBER Working Papers 11819, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Florian Heiss & Daniel McFadden & Joachim Winter, 2007. "Mind the Gap! Consumer Perceptions and Choices of Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plans," NBER Working Papers 13627, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Florian Heiss & Daniel McFadden & Joachim Winter, 2008. "Mind the Gap! Consumer Perceptions and Choices," MEA discussion paper series 08156, Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging (MEA), University of Mannheim. [Downloadable!]
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