Data and Code for: Can Automatic Retention Improve Health Insurance Market Outcomes?

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Mark Shepard, Harvard University; Myles Wagner, Harvard University; Adrianna McIntyre, Harvard University

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Data			04/13/2021 01:11:PM
Graphs			04/13/2021 01:12:PM
Scripts			04/13/2021 01:12:PM
Tables			04/13/2021 01:12:PM
README.txt	text/plain	7.7 KB	04/13/2021 09:11:AM

Project Citation:

Shepard, Mark, Wagner, Myles, and McIntyre, Adrianna. Data and Code for: Can Automatic Retention Improve Health Insurance Market Outcomes? Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2021. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-04-29. https://doi.org/10.3886/E137601V1

Project Description

Summary: There is growing interest in market design using default rules and other “choice architecture” principles to steer consumers toward desirable outcomes. Using data from Massachusetts’ health insurance exchange, we study an “automatic retention” policy intended to prevent coverage interruptions among low-income enrollees. Rather than disenroll people who lapse in paying premiums, the policy automatically switches them to an available free plan until they actively cancel or lose eligibility. We find that automatic retention has a sizable impact, switching 14% of consumers annually and differentially retaining healthy, low-cost individuals. The results illustrate the power of defaults to shape insurance coverage outcomes.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: health insurance; Automatic retention

JEL Classification:
I13 Health Insurance, Public and Private
I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

Geographic Coverage: Massachusetts

Time Period(s): 7/1/2009 – 6/30/2012

Data Type(s): program source code

Collection Notes: Original administrative data are not posted here due to privacy restrictions in our DUA. We have posted code, collapsed data, and figure/table output only.

Methodology

Data Source: Massachusetts Health Connector data for the Commonwealth Care health insurance program

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Published Versions

V1 [2021-04-29]

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