Tax Incentives and Target Demographics: Are Tax Incentives Effective in the Health Insurance Market?

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaele Morrow ◽  
Shane R. Stinson ◽  
Marcus M. Doxey
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Health Insurance Coverage ◽  
Tax Incentives ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Personal Income Tax ◽  
Tax Incentive ◽  
Incentive Structures

ABSTRACT The Affordable Care Act (ACA) employs personal income tax credits and surcharges to enforce its mandate for health insurance coverage. This initiative depends largely on the use of tax incentives to increase participation by young adults who are relatively healthy and have voiced concerns over the expected costs and benefits of obtaining mandated coverage. Consistent with these concerns, we find in an experimental setting that so-called “young invincibles” largely base their decisions to purchase insurance on the expected costs of coverage and the perceived likelihood of illness or injury, but are relatively unmotivated by tax incentives in the forms featured in current legislation. Tax incentive structures not featured in the ACA show some ability to motivate young invincibles, but the effect is not incremental to simple price reductions. In contrast, older and more experienced participants exhibit less sensitivity to premium costs and respond favorably to tax incentives, regardless of form. JEL Classifications: H20; H24; I13.

The Impact of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansions on the Sources of Health Insurance Coverage of Undergraduate Students in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 107755872110158
Author(s):  
Priyanka Anand ◽  
Dora Gicheva
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Health Insurance Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
The Affordable Care Act ◽  
Medicaid Expansions

This article examines how the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansions affected the sources of health insurance coverage of undergraduate students in the United States. We show that the Affordable Care Act expansions increased the Medicaid coverage of undergraduate students by 5 to 7 percentage points more in expansion states than in nonexpansion states, resulting in 17% of undergraduate students in expansion states being covered by Medicaid postexpansion (up from 9% prior to the expansion). In contrast, the growth in employer and private direct coverage was 1 to 2 percentage points lower postexpansion for students in expansion states compared with nonexpansion states. Our findings demonstrate that policy efforts to expand Medicaid eligibility have been successful in increasing the Medicaid coverage rates for undergraduate students in the United States, but there is evidence of some crowd out after the expansions—that is, some students substituted their private and employer-sponsored coverage for Medicaid.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica M. Mulligan ◽  
Heide Castañeda
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Health Insurance Coverage ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Immigration Status ◽  
Anthropological Approach ◽  
The Law

In this chapter, Jessica M. Mulligan and Heide Castañeda provide an overview of the Affordable Care Act focused on the coverage expansions that were at the heart of the law. The authors outline the ethnographic methods used in the book, arguing that an anthropological approach provides an experience-near perspective on implementation that too often is absent in mainstream treatments of health policy. The central theoretical concerns of the book are also introduced: stratified citizenship, risk, and responsibility. The term stratified citizenship describes how certain social identities and demographic characteristics—such as immigration status, income, gender, race, and state of residence—mediated how people were included or excluded from health insurance coverage through the ACA. Exposure to risks as well as inclusion in the new responsibilities created by the law were also unequally distributed.

scholarly journals Increasing Health Insurance Coverage through an Extended Federal Employees Health Benefits Program

2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth C. Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Health Benefits ◽  
Health Insurance Coverage ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
Federal Employees ◽  
Public Programs ◽  
The Cost

The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) could be combined with health insurance tax credits to extend coverage to the uninsured. An extended FEHBP, or “E-FEHBP,” would be open to all individuals who were not covered through work or public programs and who also were eligible for the tax credits on the basis of income. E-FEHBP also would be open to employees of very small firms, regardless of their eligibility for tax credits. Most plans available to FEHBP participants would be required to offer enrollment to E-FEHBP participants, although premiums would be rated separately. High-risk individuals would be diverted to a separate high-risk pool, the cost of which would be subsidized by the federal government. E-FEHBP would be administered by the states, or if a state declined, by an entity that contracted with the Office of Personnel Management. While E-FEHBP would provide group insurance to people who otherwise could not get it, premiums could exceed the tax-credit amount and some people still might find the coverage unaffordable.

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