Code and Data for: What Difference Does a Health Plan Make? Evidence from Random Plan Assignment in Medicaid

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Michael Geruso, Department of Economics, University of Texas-Austin; Timothy Layton, Harvard University. Harvard Medical School. Department of Health Care Policy; Jacob Wallace, Yale School of Public Health

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
glw_repl_package 2			11/07/2023 10:13:AM

Project Citation:

Geruso, Michael , Layton, Timothy, and Wallace, Jacob. Code and Data for: What Difference Does a Health Plan Make? Evidence from Random Plan Assignment in Medicaid. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2024. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-02-06. https://doi.org/10.3886/E175881V1

Project Description

Summary:

Exploiting the random assignment of Medicaid beneficiaries to managed care plans, we find substantial plan-specific spending effects despite plans having identical cost sharing. Enrollment in the lowest-spending plan generates about 30% lower spending—driven by differences in quantity— relative to enrollment in the highest-spending plan. Rather than reducing “wasteful” spending, lower-spending plans broadly reduce medical service provision—including the provision of low- cost, high-value care—and worsen beneficiary satisfaction and health. Consumer demand follows spending: a 10 percent increase in plan-specific spending is associated with a 40 percent increase in market share. These facts have implications for the government’s contracting problem and program cost growth.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Health economics; Medicaid; Managed care

JEL Classification:
      H75 State and Local Government: Health; Education; Welfare; Public Pensions
      I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets
      I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

Geographic Coverage: New York, New York

Time Period(s): 1/1/2008 – 1/1/2012 (2008 - 2012)

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Published Versions

V1 [2024-02-06]

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DDI 2.5

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