A ubiquitous form of government intervention in insurance markets is to provide compulsory, but partial, public insurance coverage and to allow voluntary purchases of supplementary insurance on the private market. Yet we know little about the effects of such programs on total insurance coverage and on welfare. A primary concern is that the compulsory public insurance program - designed to counter the effects of adverse selection in the private insurance market - may in fact exacerbate adverse selection pressures in the residual private insurance market. Theoretically, however, these programs may either improve or impair the functioning of the residual private insurance market. To examine this question empirically, I investigate the effect of the U.S. Medicare program - which provides partial public health insurance to individuals aged 65 and over - on the private insurance market for prescription drugs, a benefit not provided by the public program. The results suggest that Medicare does not have substantial spillover effects on residual private insurance markets. In particular, there is no evidence that Medicare is associated with increased adverse selection problems in the residual private health insurance market.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
9031.
Length: Date of creation: Jun 2002 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9031
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Find related papers by JEL classification: I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health H42 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Private Goods
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