New Directions in Health Insurance Markets

Today we’ll discuss some areas that I view as important and await further research in the study of health insurance markets. These are not exhaustive, but they provide a starting point for understanding the current state of research in health insurance markets and identifying gaps in the literature.

Expanding Health Insurance Access and Affordability

In light of the debates around healthcare reform, there’s a pressing need to evaluate which policies are most effective in expanding access to and affordability of health insurance. Understanding the welfare consequences of these policies helps inform decisions that could impact millions of lives. We’ll discuss Geddes and Schnell (2023) and Curto (2023) as examples of this type of ongoing research.

Public vs Private Health Insurance

There is growing interest concerning the effects of privatizing an otherwise public health insurance program. This is particularly important as we continue to consider the increasing privatization in public insurance such as Medicaid Managed Care and Medicare Advantage. We’ll discuss Layton et al. (2019) and Macambira et al. (2022) as examples of this area of study.

References

Curto, Vilsa E. 2023. “Pricing Regulations in Individual Health Insurance: Evidence from Medigap.” Journal of Health Economics 91 (September): 102785. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2023.102785.
Geddes, Eilidh, and Molly Schnell. 2023. “The Expansionary and Contractionary Supply-Side Effects of Health Insurance.” Working {Paper}. Working Paper Series. National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w31483.
Layton, Timothy J., Nicole Maestas, Daniel Prinz, and Boris Vabson. 2019. “Private Vs. Public Provision of Social Insurance: Evidence from Medicaid.” Working {Paper}. Working Paper Series. National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w26042.
Macambira, Danil Agafiev, Michael Geruso, Anthony Lollo, Chima D. Ndumele, and Jacob Wallace. 2022. “The Private Provision of Public Services: Evidence from Random Assignment in Medicaid.” w30390. National Bureau of Economic Research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w30390.