Choice, price competition and complexity in markets for health insurance

The United States and other nations rely on consumer choice and price competition between competing health plans to allocate resources in the health sector. While a great deal of research has examined the efficiency consequences of adverse selection in health insurance markets, less attention has been devoted to other aspects of consumer choice. The nation of Switzerland offers a unique opportunity to study price competition in health insurance markets. Switzerland regulates health insurance markets with the aim of minimizing adverse selection and encouraging strong price competition. We examine consumer responses to price differences in local markets and the degree of price variation in local markets. Using both survey data and observations on local markets we obtain evidence suggesting that as the number of choices offered to individuals grows, their willingness to switch plans given a set of price dispersion differences declines, which allows large price differences for relatively homogeneous products to persist. We consider explanations for this phenomenon from economics and psychology.     

充分发挥失业保险促进就业功能的探析

失业保险既是社会保障体系的重要组成部分,又是积极就业政策的重要支柱。20世纪80年代以来,我国逐步建立了失业保险制度,有效保障了失业人员的合法权益,为人力资源体系建立发展提供了有力的保障,对维护社会稳定、促进社会和谐发展发挥了重要作用。然而,由于制度框架的限制等原因,近年来失业保险促进就业的功能体现不明显,出现了失业保险扩面难、基金结余过多等问题,影响到失业保险制度的健康发展。当前,国际金融危机蔓延,给我国经济发展和人民生活带来严重影响,随着部分企业特别是劳动密集型中小企业生产经营困难,就业形势趋于严峻,要求国家实施更加积极的就业政策。从实际来看,失业保险基金实力增强,具备承担促进就业、预防失业的能力。对此,文章通过重点分析云南省失业保险运行状况,结合当前经济形势的需要,并借鉴国外在失业保险制度改革方面的带有共性的经验和做法,指出失业保险应由保障生活、促进就业向预防失业方向扩展,以充分发挥其在人力资源体系建设中应有的作用;同时,根据失业保险属性,提出在政策上要有相对灵活性,建议失业保险对象应扩展到用人单位。     

大学生健康与医保信息系统的研究及数据库设计

本文主要论述了大学生健康与医保信息系统的设计与开发,首先分析系统功能,然后着重阐述了数据库部分的开发,在实现系统功能的基础上指出了存在的不足和建议。     

分红保险合同红利负债的确认与计量研究

近年来分红保险已成为我国保险市场的热销产品,它几乎占据了寿险市场的半壁江山,但分红保险负债的确认与计量问题,特别是分红保险红利负债的确认与计量问题在我国并未形成统一的规范,本文根据分红保险的不同红利分配方式对分红保险合同红利负债的确认与计量问题进行研究。     

基于要素禀赋的上海金融外包行业发展可行性研究

大量的海内外实践表明,发展金融外包对于一个国家、一座城市具有重要意义和强大吸引力.本文先从理论层面上,构建了"基于要素禀赋的外包行业发展可行性评价体系",之后通过问卷调研的方法,结合对应分析,研究了各要素禀赋对于上海发展金融外包的关联度,并对其匹配情况进行分析.实证研究表明:上海大力发展金融外包具有可行性.     

Efficiency of health care delivery systems: effects of health insurance coverage

Health insurance expansions may increase the demand for care-creating incentives for health systems to increase input consumption. The possibility remains that added capacity and personnel will have little effect on health outcomes, decreasing the technical efficiency of health care delivery systems. We estimate that a 1 percentage point increase in health insurance coverage decreases the technical efficiency of health care delivery by 1.3 percentage points, translating into approximately 50 billion dollars in additional health expenditures. This finding uncovers a previously unexplored consequence of changes in health insurance on the supply side of health care markets suggesting one avenue through which health care costs growth may occur.     

Who pays the high health costs of older workers? Evidence from prostate cancer screening mandates

Between 1992 and 2009, 30 US states adopted laws mandating that health insurance plans cover screenings for prostate cancer. Because prostate cancer screenings are used almost exclusively by men over age 50, these mandates raise the cost of insuring older men relative to other groups. This article uses a triple-difference empirical strategy to take advantage of this quasi-random natural experiment in raising the cost of employing older workers. Using Integrated Public Use Microdata Series data from the March Supplement of the Current Population Survey, I find that the increased cost of insuring older workers results in their receiving 2.8% lower hourly wages, being 2% less likely to be employed and being 0.7% less likely to have employer-sponsored health insurance.     

Determinants of private health insurance coverage among Mexican American men 2010–2013

Abstract

Background: Private health insurance (PHI) represents the largest source of insurance for Americans. Hispanic Americans have one of the lowest rates of PHI coverage. The largest group in the US Hispanic population are Mexican Americans; they account for about two in every three Hispanics. One in every three Mexican Americans aged 64 years and under did not have health insurance coverage. Mexican Americans have the most unfavorable health insurance coverage of any population group in the nation.

Objectives: The objective is to determine the factors associated with the gap in PHI coverage between Mexican American and non-Hispanic American men.

Methods: This study used the National Health Interview Surveys (2010–2013) as the sample. A non-linear Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition was run, estimating the explained and unexplained gap in PHI coverage between the groups. Several robustness tests of the model were also included.

Results: This study estimates that 44.4% of employed Mexican American men are covered by PHI compared to 79.5% of non-Hispanic American men. Nearly 60% of employed Mexican American men were found to be foreign born, 35% have an educational attainment less than a high school degree, and 40% are likely to have language barriers. Decomposition results show that income, low educational attainment, being foreign-born, and language barriers diminished the probability of private health insurance coverage for Mexican Americans, and that 10% of the gap is unexplained.

Conclusions: Most of the difference in the PHI rate between Mexican American men and non-Hispanic men is explained by observable differences in group characteristics: education, language, and immigration status. About 10% of the difference can be attributed to discrimination under the traditional interpretation of an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition. The PHI rate gap is large and persistent for Mexican American men.     

我国商业健康保险的需求影响因素分析

本文利用实际数据,通过构造多元回归计量模型,对影响健康保险有效需求的原因进行了实证分析。结果显示,我国经济的快速增长正成为影响商业健康保险消费的重要因素,当前应深化医疗卫生体制改革,推进公私合作伙伴关系,提高保险公司自身业务水平,推动商业健康保险的长期健康发展。     

Does Work Always Pay in Germany?

Abstract. Income redistribution in Germany is the result of a combination of several redistribution instruments: there is a complex income tax law, different obligatory social insurances and supplementary benefits. This paper estimates income redistribution by quantile regression, using German EVS data. Two results are obtained: income after redistribution does not always increase in line with income before redistribution, i.e. for people with a low income before redistribution, it does not make sense to increase their efforts, since more work means less earnings. Further, an increasing redistribution rate for higher incomes is not always observable from the data.