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Selection on Moral Hazard in Health Insurance

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  • Liran Einav
  • Amy Finkelstein
  • Stephen P. Ryan
  • Paul Schrimpf
  • Mark R. Cullen

Abstract

In this paper we explore the possibility that individuals may select insurance coverage in part based on their anticipated behavioral response to the insurance contract. Such "selection on moral hazard" can have important implications for attempts to combat either selection or moral hazard. We explore these issues using individual-level panel data from a single firm, which contain information about health insurance options, choices, and subsequent claims. To identify the behavioral response to health insurance coverage and the heterogeneity in it, we take advantage of a change in the health insurance options offered to some, but not all of the firm's employees. We begin with descriptive evidence that is suggestive of both heterogeneous moral hazard as well as selection on it, with individuals who select more coverage also appearing to exhibit greater behavioral response to that coverage. To formalize this analysis and explore its implications, we develop and estimate a model of plan choice and medical utilization. The results from the modeling exercise echo the descriptive evidence, and allow for further explorations of the interaction between selection and moral hazard. For example, one implication of our estimates is that abstracting from selection on moral hazard could lead one to substantially over-estimate the spending reduction associated with introducing a high deductible health insurance option.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 16969.

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Date of creation: Apr 2011
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16969

Note: AG HC HE IO LS PE
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References

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  1. James J. Heckman & Sergio Urzua & Edward J. Vytlacil, 2006. "Understanding Instrumental Variables in Models with Essential Heterogeneity," NBER Working Papers 12574, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Patrick Bajari & Han Hong & Ahmed Khwaja, 2006. "Moral Hazard, Adverse Selection and Health Expenditures: A Semiparametric Analysis," NBER Working Papers 12445, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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  11. Amitabh Chandra & Jonathan Gruber & Robin McKnight, 2010. "Patient Cost-Sharing and Hospitalization Offsets in the Elderly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(1), pages 193-213, March.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Georges Dionne, 2012. "The Empirical Measure of Information Problems with Emphasis on Insurance Fraud and Dynamic Data," Cahiers de recherche 1233, CIRPEE.
  2. Gharad T. Bryan & Dean Karlan & Jonathan Zinman, 2012. "Referrals: Peer Screening and Enforcement in a Consumer Credit Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 17883, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Dardanoni, Valentino & Li Donni, Paolo, 2012. "Incentive and selection effects of Medigap insurance on inpatient care," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 457-470.
  4. Aviva Aron-Dine & Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein & Mark Cullen, 2012. "Moral hazard in health insurance: How important is forward looking behavior?," Discussion Papers 11-007, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
  5. Bryan, Gharad & Karlan, Dean S. & Zinman, Jonathan, 2012. "You Can Pick Your Friends, But You Need to Watch Them: Loan Screening and Enforcement in a Referrals Field Experiment," CEPR Discussion Papers 8857, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  6. Moreno-Serra, R & Smith, PC, 2013. "Towards an index of health coverage," Working Papers 10422, Imperial College, London, Imperial College Business School.
  7. Aviva Aron-Dine & Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein & Mark R. Cullen, 2012. "Moral Hazard in Health Insurance: How Important Is Forward Looking Behavior?," NBER Working Papers 17802, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. Benjamin R. Handel, 2011. "Adverse Selection and Switching Costs in Health Insurance Markets: When Nudging Hurts," NBER Working Papers 17459, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  9. Raj Chetty & Amy Finkelstein, 2012. "Social Insurance: Connecting Theory to Data," NBER Working Papers 18433, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  10. Arun Chandrasekhar & Victor Chernozhukov & Francesca Molinari & Paul Schrimpf, 2012. "Inference for best linear approximations to set identified functions," CeMMAP working papers CWP43/12, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
  11. Randall P. Ellis & Denzil G. Fiebig & Meliyanni Johar & Glenn Jones & Elizabeth Savage, 2012. "Explaining Health Care Expenditure Variation: Large-sample Evidence Using Linked Survey and Health Administrative Data," Working Paper Series 1, Economics Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.

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