Consumer Response To A National Marketplace For Individual Health Insurance
The objective of this analysis is to simulate the difference between national and state-specific individual insurance markets on take-up of individual health insurance. First, we reviewed the literature to characterize the state-specific individual insurance markets with respect to state regulations and to identify the effect of those regulations on health insurance premiums. Second, we used empirical data to develop premium estimates for the simulation that reflect case-mix as well as state-specific differences in health care markets. Third, we used a revised version of the 2005 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to complete a set of simulations to identify the impact of three different scenarios for national market development. (National market estimates are based on the simulation model with competition among all 50 states and moderate impact assumptions.)