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Did the Affordable Care Act's dependent coverage mandate increase premiums?

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  • Depew, Briggs
  • Bailey, James

Abstract

We investigate the impact of the Affordable Care Act's dependent coverage mandate on insurance premiums. The expansion of dependent coverage under the ACA allows young adults to remain on their parent's private health insurance plans until the age of 26. We find that the mandate has led to a 2.5–2.8 percent increase in premiums for health insurance plans that cover children, relative to single-coverage plans. We are able to conclude that employers did not pass on the entire premium increase to employees through higher required plan contributions.

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  • Depew, Briggs & Bailey, James, 2015. "Did the Affordable Care Act's dependent coverage mandate increase premiums?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-14.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:41:y:2015:i:c:p:1-14
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2015.01.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    8. Yaa Akosa Antwi & Asako S. Moriya & Kosali Simon, 2013. "Effects of Federal Policy to Insure Young Adults: Evidence from the 2010 Affordable Care Act's Dependent-Coverage Mandate," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 1-28, November.
    9. Joanna N. Lahey, 2012. "The efficiency of a group‐specific mandated benefit revisited: The effect of infertility mandates," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 63-92, December.
    10. Phillip B. Levine & Robin McKnight & Samantha Heep, 2011. "How Effective Are Public Policies to Increase Health Insurance Coverage among Young Adults?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 129-156, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Bradley Heim & Ithai Lurie & Kosali Simon, 2018. "Did the Affordable Care Act Young Adult Provision Affect Labor Market Outcomes? Analysis Using Tax Data," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 71(5), pages 1154-1178, October.
    2. Mark Pauly & Scott Harrington & Adam Leive, 2015. ""Sticker Shock" in Individual Insurance under Health Reform?," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(4), pages 494-514, Fall.
    3. Kim, Seonghoon & Koh, Kanghyock, 2021. "The Effects of the Affordable Care Act Dependent Coverage Mandate on Parents' Labor Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 14089, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Joelle Abramowitz, 2017. "Planning Parenthood: The Affordable Care Act Young Adult Provision and Pathways to Fertility," Working Papers 17-65, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    5. Gopi Shah Goda & Monica Farid & Jay Bhattacharya, 2016. "The Incidence of Mandated Health Insurance: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act Dependent Care Mandate," NBER Working Papers 21846, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. James Bailey, 2017. "Health insurance and the supply of entrepreneurs: new evidence from the affordable care act," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 627-646, October.
    7. Fone, Zachary S. & Friedson, Andrew I. & Lipton, Brandy & Sabia, Joseph J., 2020. "The Dependent Coverage Mandate Took a Bite Out of Crime," IZA Discussion Papers 12968, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Dan M. Shane & David M. Zimmer, 2017. "Is the ACA bringing the family back together (for tax purposes)? Investigating the dependent coverage mandate effect on dependent tax exemptions," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1159-1176, December.
    9. Li, Yajuan & Palma, Marco A., 2017. "Health Insurance and College Enrollment: Evidence from a Natural Experiment of the Affordable Care Act Dependent Coverage Mandate," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258490, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Steve Cicala & Ethan M.J. Lieber & Victoria Marone, 2017. "Cost of Service Regulation in U.S. Health Care: Minimum Medical Loss Ratios," NBER Working Papers 23353, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Michael S. Kofoed & Wyatt J. Frasier, 2019. "[Job] Locked and [Un]loaded: The Effect of the Affordable Care Act Dependency Mandate on Reenlistment in the U.S. Army," Upjohn Working Papers 19-300, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    12. David J G Slusky, 2017. "Significant Placebo Results in Difference-in-Differences Analysis: The Case of the ACA’s Parental Mandate," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 43(4), pages 580-603, September.
    13. Steve Cicala & Ethan M. J. Lieber & Victoria Marone, 2019. "Regulating Markups in US Health Insurance," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 71-104, October.
    14. Frean, Molly & Gruber, Jonathan & Sommers, Benjamin D., 2017. "Premium subsidies, the mandate, and Medicaid expansion: Coverage effects of the Affordable Care Act," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 72-86.
    15. James Bailey, 2022. "State Health Insurance Benefit Mandates and Health Care Affordability," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-10, February.
    16. Juergen Jung & Vinish Shrestha, 2018. "The Affordable Care Act And College Enrollment Decisions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(4), pages 1980-2009, October.
    17. Nathan Blascak & Vyacheslav Mikhed, 2023. "Health Insurance and Young Adult Financial Distress," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(2), pages 393-423, March.
    18. Michael R. Richards & Sebastian Tello‐Trillo, 2021. "Private coverage mandates, business cycles, and provider treatment intensity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 1200-1221, May.
    19. Joelle Abramowitz, 2018. "Planning parenthood: the Affordable Care Act young adult provision and pathways to fertility," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 1097-1123, October.
    20. Jungtaek Lee, 2018. "Effects of health insurance coverage on risky behaviors," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(4), pages 762-777, April.
    21. James Bailey, 2014. "Who pays the high health costs of older workers? Evidence from prostate cancer screening mandates," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(32), pages 3931-3941, November.
    22. Antwi, Yaa Akosa & Maclean, J. Catherine, 2017. "State Health Insurance Mandates and Labor Market Outcomes: New Evidence on Old Questions," IZA Discussion Papers 10578, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    23. Kim, Seonghoon & Koh, Kanghyock, 2022. "The effects of the affordable care act dependent coverage mandate on parents’ labor market outcomes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    24. James Bailey & Nathan Blascak, 2016. "The effect of state health insurance benefit mandates on premiums and employee contributions," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(14), pages 1042-1046, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Affordable Care Act; Health insurance premium; Insurance mandate; Risk pool; Dependent instance coverage;
    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
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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