Replication data for: Health Care Spending and Utilization in Public and Private Medicare

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Vilsa Curto; Liran Einav; Amy Finkelstein; Jonathan Levin; Jay Bhattacharya

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
data			10/12/2019 02:49:PM
LICENSE.txt	text/plain	14.6 KB	10/12/2019 10:49:AM

Project Citation:

Curto, Vilsa, Einav, Liran, Finkelstein, Amy, Levin, Jonathan, and Bhattacharya, Jay. Replication data for: Health Care Spending and Utilization in Public and Private Medicare. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2019. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E113726V1

Project Description

Summary: We compare health care spending in public and private Medicare using newly available claims data from Medicare Advantage (MA) insurers. MA insurer revenues are 30 percent higher than their health care spending. Adjusting for enrollee mix, health care spending per enrollee in MA is 9 to 30 percent lower than in Traditional Medicare (TM), depending on the way we define "comparable" enrollees. Spending differences primarily reflect differences in health care utilization, with similar reductions for "high-value" and "low-value" care, rather than health care prices. We present evidence consistent with MA plans encouraging substitution to less expensive care and engaging in utilization management.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      G22 Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
      H44 Publicly Provided Goods: Mixed Markets
      H51 National Government Expenditures and Health
      I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets
      I13 Health Insurance, Public and Private

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V1 [2019-10-12]

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