The Effects of Retiree Health Insurance Plan Characteristics on Retirees' Choice and Employers' Costs
Year: 2013
Type: report
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: To moderate the rate of growth of retiree health insurance costs, employers can modify plans and move retirees into less expensive plans. We examine policy modifications implemented by the North Carolina State Health Plan. We investigate whether incentives produce the desired plan elections and whether these changes, along with cost shifting, produce the expected reductions in cost growth. Using individual-level administrative data, along with aggregated data on expenditures for retirees, we estimate the effects of the introduction and subsequent repeal of a Comprehensive Wellness Initiative for non-Medicare eligible retirees, as well as increases in coinsurance and copayments and the introduction of a premium for all retirees. Over a third of non-Medicare retirees shifted into the least generous plan between June 2009 and December 2012. The level effects on annual costs and unfunded accrued liabilities were relatively modest, but growth rates were diminished. Increases in the retiree premiums reduced the state's projected costs.
DOI: 10.3386/w19566
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3024491773