Poster #62 - Improving Choices in Health Insurance: Evidence from California

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

We study the impact of choice set curation on the choice quality at the state-based health benefit exchange. With data on consumer shopping behavior from Covered California, we document the association between the choice set and a selection of suboptimal options that provide less benefits for the same or higher price. Using the differences-in-discontinuity estimation approach, we find that consumers exposed to the smaller, higher-quality choice set were up to 13.1 percentage points less likely (53% decrease) to select a suboptimal option compared to the group who were not exposed. However, we don’t find consistent evidence that smaller choice sets increase consumers’ willingness to participate in the market.

Author

• Marina Lovchikova, California Department of Health Care Access and Information
  Presenting Author