The Determinants of Health Insurance Take-up and Plan Choice in Covered California
While the Affordable Care Act aimed to expand insurance coverage in the United States, insurance take-up rates remain fairly low, and many individuals purchase plans that are sub-optimal for their needs. The success of the health insurance exchanges created by the ACA largely depends on the choices consumers make, but the underlying factors contributing to those choices are not well understood. This project will conduct a randomized evaluation in California to study the key determinants of health insurance take-up and plan choice. The study will evaluate how providing information about the benefits of purchasing a plan, premium subsidies, penalties of remaining uninsured, and making plans more easily comparable, affects insurance take-up and choice of plans.
Learn more:
- Evaluation Summary: Information to Increase Insurance Take-up and Reduce Market Risk in the United States
- Policy Insight: The effect of nudges on health insurance take-up in the United States
- Publication: The Role of Behavioral Frictions in Health Insurance Marketplace Enrollment and Risk: Evidence from a Field Experiment, American Economic Review
- Working Paper: The Role of Behavioral Frictions in Health Insurance Marketplace Enrollment and Risk: Evidence from a Field Experiment, National Bureau of Economic Research