Health insurance reform and HMO penetration in the small group market.
This study uses data from several national employer surveys conducted between the late 1980s and the mid-1990s to investigate the effect of state-level underwriting reforms on HMO penetration in the small group health insurance market. We identify reform effects by exploiting cross-state variation in the timing and content of reform legislation and by using mid-sized and large employers, which were not affected by the legislation, as within-state control groups. While it is difficult to disentangle the effect of state reforms from other factors affecting HMO penetration in the small group markets, the results suggest a positive relationship between insurance market regulations and HMO penetration.
Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine 92697-3125, USA. tcbuchmu@uci.edu
Thomas C
TC
Buchmueller
Su
S
Liu
D003625:Data Collection; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000145:classification*; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D020379:Risk Adjustment / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D013219:State Government; D014481:United States