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Health Insurance Benefit Design

Journal Article

Policy Options for Providing ACA Subsidies

The ACA provides tax subsidies to qualified individuals for purchasing insurance while retaining tax exemptions for contributions to employer-sponsored insurance premiums. There are several options for leveling the financial playing field between the two markets.

Dec 10, 2015
Commentary

The Ramifications of Repealing the Individual Mandate

As part of its goal of near-universal coverage, the Affordable Care Act requires most Americans to obtain insurance or pay a penalty. Repealing that requirement would significantly reduce health insurance enrollment and cause individual market premiums to rise.

Aug 13, 2015
Research Brief

How Does the ACA Individual Mandate Affect Enrollment and Premiums in the Individual Insurance Market?

Describes how removing the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate would affect health insurance premiums and the overall numbered of insured.

Jun 4, 2015
Journal Article

Early Marketplace Enrollees Were Older and Used More Medication

Prescription data on more than one million Marketplace patients shows that those who enrolled earlier were older and used more medication than later enrollees. However, Marketplace enrollees as a whole had lower average drug spending than the employer-sponsored comparison group.

May 29, 2015
Content

The Affordable Care Act: An Overview of the Evidence

RAND researchers have analyzed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—the sweeping health care reform sometimes known as “Obamacare”—from many different angles. Here's what they've learned.

Apr 8, 2015
Research Brief

How Would Alternative Subsidy Structures Affect Stability in the ACA Individual Market?

Subsidies in the ACA's health insurance exchanges help stabilize the insurance market by encouraging younger, healthier people to stay enrolled in the face of premium hikes. Critics of the current subsidies have proposed alternatives. What effects would these have?

Apr 6, 2015
Journal Article

Comparing Employer-Sponsored and Federal Exchange Plans: Wide Variations in Cost Sharing for Prescription Drugs

Our primary objective was to examine the variability in drug coverage in the exchanges across plan types (health maintenance organization or preferred provider organization) and metal tiers (bronze, silver, gold, and platinum).

Mar 9, 2015
Journal Article

Impact of Out-of-Pocket Spending Caps on Financial Burden of Those with Group Health Insurance

Mandated uniform out-of-pocket caps for those with group insurance will benefit very few individuals, and will not result in substantial reductions in financial burden.

Mar 9, 2015
Journal Article

A Research Note on Transitions in Out-of-Pocket Spending on Dental Services

The authors analyze correlates of the direction and magnitude of changes in out-of-pocket (OOP) payments for dental care by older Americans over a recent 4-year period.

Feb 26, 2015
Research Brief

How Does Enrollment of Young Invincibles Affect Premiums in the ACA Individual Market?

Using the COMPARE microsimulation model, researchers estimated the effects of reduced enrollment of young adults (invincibles) in the individual health insurance market. Results indicate that reduced enrollment of invincibles is associated with only modest premium increases.

Feb 5, 2015
Research Brief

What If King v. Burwell Had Turned Out Differently?

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Affordable Care Act's subsidies can continue in all states. According to RAND research cited in the court's majority opinion, a different outcome could've resulted in higher premiums and about 8 million uninsured Americans.

Jan 16, 2015
News Release

Eliminating Subsidies for People to Buy Health Coverage Would Increase Premiums and Number of Uninsured

Eliminating subsidies that help low- and moderate-income people purchase coverage through government-run health insurance marketplaces would sharply boost costs for consumers as much as 43 percent and cause more than 11 million Americans to lose their health insurance.

Oct 21, 2014
Research Brief

Young Adult Enrollment and the Affordable Care Act

Reduced young-adult enrollment in the individual health insurance market created under the Affordable Care Act would lead to modest premium increases; however, eliminating tax credits would substantially increase premiums and reduce enrollment.

Oct 21, 2014
Report

Eliminating Subsidies for People to Buy Health Coverage Would Increase Premiums and Number of Uninsured

Eliminating subsidies that help low- and moderate-income people purchase coverage through government-run health insurance marketplaces would boost costs for consumers as much as 43 percent and cause more than 11 million Americans to lose their health insurance.

Oct 21, 2014
Report

Barriers to Enrollment in Health Coverage in Colorado

Explores why eligible individuals are not enrolled in health insurance coverage in Colorado and makes recommendations on how Colorado can strengthen its future outreach and enrollment efforts.

Oct 6, 2014
Tool

Five Steps to a Successful Workplace Wellness Program

Workplace wellness programs can reduce health risks, lower health care costs, and improve productivity — but all programs are not created equal. This toolkit presents a five-step guide for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a successful workplace wellness program.

Jun 24, 2014
Blog

In Brief: Amelia M. Haviland on Consumer-Directed Health Plans

In this video, Amelia Haviland presents the results of several new RAND studies on cost and quality in consumer-directed health plans, and explores how switching plans affects the quality of care.

Jan 23, 2013
Multimedia

Skin in the Game: How Consumer-Directed Health Plans Can Affect the Cost and Use of Health Care

In this December 2012 Congressional Briefing, Amelia Haviland presents the results of several RAND studies on cost and quality in consumer-directed health plans, including how a switch to such plans may affect the quality of health care for participating families.

Dec 10, 2012
Research Brief

Engage and Empower Consumers to Contain Health Care Spending

Cost-sharing leads consumers to reduce both highly beneficial and less beneficial care, so they must be empowered with useful information to make informed decisions. Public cost and quality reports must be accurate, accessible, and understandable.

Nov 15, 2012
Journal Article

Do Health Plans Risk-Select? An Audit Study on Germany's Social Health Insurance

This paper evaluates whether health plans in Germany's Social Health Insurance select on an easily observable predictor of risk: geography.

Oct 1, 2012

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