Labor Market Concentration and Worker Contributions to Health Insurance Premiums

In concentrated labor markets, where workers have fewer employers to choose from, employers may exploit their monopsony power by contributing less to workers’ health benefits. This study examined if labor market concentration was associated with higher worker contributions to health plan premiums. We combined publicly available data from the Census to calculate labor market concentration and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance/Employer Component to determine premium contributions from 2010 to 2016 for metropolitan areas. After controlling for year fixed-effects and market characteristics, we found that higher labor market concentration was associated with higher worker contributions to health plan premiums, lower take-home income, and no change in employer contributions to premiums, consistent with the hypothesis that greater labor market concentration is associated with less generous health benefits. When evaluating the effects of mergers and acquisitions on labor markets, regulatory agencies should critically assess worker contributions to health insurance premiums.

Energy Consumption and Health Insurance Premiums in China's Provinces: Evidence From Asymmetric Panel Causality Test

This article employs asymmetric panel causality test to address the causal nexus between energy consumption (EC) and healthcare insurance premiums (IP) for China's different provinces. The empirical results indicate that there exist asymmetric causality runs from positive EC shocks to positive healthcare IPs in Beijing, Hebei, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Shandong, Henan, and Anhui. There is no significant link in southern and northeastern provinces mainly because of their industrial structure, high economic development level, strong insurance consciousness, and climate conditions. Therefore, governments should encourage technological innovation and further improve energy efficiency. Meanwhile, we need to optimize EC structure and raise the proportion of renewable energies. The authorities should carry out stricter environmental protection policies and protect people from pollution that comes from fossil fuel burn. The commercial health insurance should be included in the health system and become an important supplement to public health insurance.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF GOVERNMENT SPONSORED HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEMES TOWARDS INDIAN HEALTH SECTOR

Today, there are thirty four general insurance companies including the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd (ECGC) and Agriculture Insurance Corporation (AIC) of India and 24 life insurance companies operating in the country. Barring the AIC and ECGC, all other 32 insurers transact health insurance business, of whom six are stand-alone health insurers. Although there are number of insurers and different types of health insurance products available in the market, three-fourth health-insured Indians still gets covered only by a government-sponsored health insurance scheme (GSHIS) like PMJAY. Of all the health insurance premiums underwritten in the year 2019-20, 10 per cent came only from the GSHIS. In terms of number of persons covered, 73 per cent health-insured people are governed by one or other GSHIS. Looking at the profitability of the health insurer also, the incurred claims ratio is just 97.22 per cent in GSHISs. Thus, the health insurance premium, penetration and profitability—all of these are significantly sponsored and subsidized by the government through GSHIS, incorporating the public–private partnership (PPP) mode. This article details the role of GSHIS in the health insurance segment, taking the performances of the Indian health insurance sector in the year 2019-20. KEYWORDS: Government sponsored health insurance schemes, health insurance, health premium, incurred claims ratio, insurance, insurance regulatory and development authority, standalone health insurers.

The Effects of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Premiums on Employment and Wages: Evidence from US Longitudinal Data.

We analyze the effect of employer-sponsored health insurance premiums on employment and annual wages in the US using a county-level panel dataset for the period 2005-2010. Using variation in medical malpractice payments and variation in medical malpractice legislation over time and within states as the source of identifying variation in the health insurance premiums, we estimate the causal effects of rising health insurance premiums on employment and annual wages. We find that a 10% increase in premiums reduces employment by 1.1 percentage points, and leads to a statistically insignificant reduction of annual wages. Since US counties are characterized by a varying degree of private health insurance coverage, we also test whether the private health insurance coverage is a moderating variable for the relationship between the health insurance premiums and the labor market outcomes analyzed in this study. We find that rising premiums negatively affect the labor market conditions faced by US workers, especially in areas that are characterized by high private health insurance coverage.