Replication data for: Regulating Markups in US Health Insurance

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Steve Cicala; Ethan M. J. Lieber; Victoria Marone

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
data			12/07/2019 01:56:PM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	12/07/2019 08:56:AM

Project Citation:

Cicala, Steve, Lieber, Ethan M. J., and Marone, Victoria. Replication data for: Regulating Markups in US Health Insurance. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2019. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-12-07. https://doi.org/10.3886/E116367V1

Project Description

Summary: A health insurer's Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) is the share of premiums spent on medical claims, or the inverse markup over average claims cost. The Affordable Care Act introduced minimum MLR provisions for all health insurance sold in fully insured commercial markets, thereby capping insurer profit margins, but not levels. While intended to reduce premiums, we show this rule creates incentives to increase costs. Using variation created by the rule's introduction as a natural experiment, we find medical claims rose nearly one-for-one with distance below the regulatory threshold: 7 percent in the individual market and 2 percent in the group market. Premiums were unaffected.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      G22 Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
      H51 National Government Expenditures and Health
      I13 Health Insurance, Public and Private
      I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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V1 [2019-12-07]

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