Book/Printed Material Sources of advantageous selection evidence from the medigap insurance market
About this Item
Title
- Sources of advantageous selection evidence from the medigap insurance market
Summary
- "We provide strong evidence of advantageous selection in the Medigap insurance market, and analyze its sources. Using Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) data, we find that, conditional on controls for the price of Medigap, medical expenditures for senior citizens with Medigap coverage are, on average, about $4,000 less than for those without. But, if we condition on health, expenditures for seniors on Medigap are about $2,000 more. These two findings can only be reconciled if those with less health expenditure risk are more likely to purchase Medigap, implying advantageous selection. By combining the MCBS and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we investigate the sources of this advantageous selection. These include income, education, longevity expectations and financial planing horizons, as well as cognitive ability. Once we condition on all these factors, seniors with higher expected medical expenditure are indeed more likely to purchase Medigap. Surprisingly, risk preferences do not appear to be a source of advantageous selection. But cognitive ability emerges as a particularly important factor, consistent with a view that many senior citizens have difficulty understanding Medicare and Medigap rules"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Names
- Fang, Hanming
- Keane, Michael P.
- Silverman, Dan
- National Bureau of Economic Research
Created / Published
- Cambridge, MA : National Bureau of Economic Research, c2006.
Notes
- - Title from PDF file as viewed on 6/28/2006.
- - Includes bibliographical references.
- - Also available in print.
- - Mode of access: World Wide Web.
- - System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Call Number/Physical Location
- HB1
Digital Id
- https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/gdcebookspublic.2006619562
- http://papers.nber.org/papers/w12289 External
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2006619562
Access Advisory
- Unrestricted online access
Online Format
- image