Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
保险公司竞争对保费的分配效应：来自雇主赞助健康保险市场的证据
Distributional Effect of Insurer Competition on Premiums: Evidence From the Employer‐Sponsored Health Insurance Market
摘要
We study how insurer competition affects premiums for fully‐insured plans in the employer‐sponsored health insurance market. By utilizing quasi‐experimental variations induced by mergers among national insurers, we show that increased insurer concentration leads to higher premiums, but there exists substantial heterogeneity. In particular, we find that a increase in insurer concentration increases premiums for mid‐sized firms by but reduces premiums for large firms by . We explore additional sources of heterogeneity to shed light on the underlying mechanisms and conclude by discussing policy implications.
中文摘要
我们研究了保险公司竞争如何影响雇主提供的健康保险市场中全额保险计划的保费。利用全国性保险公司合并引发的准实验变异，我们发现保险公司集中度的提高导致保费上升，但存在显著的异质性。具体而言，我们观察到保险公司集中度的增加使中型企业的保费上升了，却使大型企业的保费下降了。我们进一步探索了异质性的其他来源以揭示潜在机制，并在结论中讨论了政策含义。