Health Reform, Health Insurance, and Selection: Estimating Selection into Health Insurance Using the Massachusetts Health Reform

摘要

Our results suggest that increased coverage due to reform in Massachusetts lowered average hospital costs for the insured, and thus average premiums before loading, by about $124. This impact, which represents an average premium change over all types of insurance, is consis tent with the aggregate change in premiums in Massachusetts. Between 2006 and 2009, premi ums in employer-sponsored plans followed the national trend, but premiums in the nongroup market decreased by 20 percent (Gruber 2011), comparable to the 3 percent overall decrease in premiums that we observe.