ArticleThe quarterly journal of economics2021
Mortality Effects and Choice Across Private Health Insurance Plans.
Article in The quarterly journal of economics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Federal Enforcement Actions Against Medicare Advantage Plans.JAMA internal medicine · 2026Article
- Medicare Advantage Part B Premium Givebacks and Enrollment.JAMA health forum · 2025Article
- The Health Costs of Cost Sharing.The quarterly journal of economics · 2024Article
- Contract Termination and Insurance Enrollment Among Medicare Advantage Beneficiaries.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Medicare Advantage plan characteristics associated with sorting their beneficiaries to providers that generate fewer avoidable hospital stays.Health services research · 2024Article
- Fitting in? Physician practice style after forced relocation.Health services research · 2024Article
- Is there an advantage? Considerations for researchers studying the effects of the type of Medicare coverage.Health services research · 2024Review
- Filgrastim and infliximab biosimilar uptake in Medicare Advantage compared with Traditional Medicare, 2016-2019.Journal of managed care & specialty pharmacy · 2024Article
- Changes in Care Associated With Integrating Medicare and Medicaid for Dual-Eligible Individuals.JAMA health forum · 2023Article
- Is There a VA Advantage? Evidence from Dually Eligible Veterans.The American economic review · 2023Article
- The Impact of Organizational Boundaries on Healthcare Coordination and Utilization.American economic journal. Economic policy · 2023Article
- What Difference Does a Health Plan Make? Evidence from Random Plan Assignment in Medicaid.American economic journal. Applied economics · 2023Article
- Association Between Provider-Sponsored Health Plan Ownership and Health Insurance Marketplace Plan Quality.Journal of general internal medicine · 2022Article
- Characteristics of Terminated Medicare Advantage Contracts, 2011 to 2020.JAMA health forum · 2022Article
- Team Relationships and Performance: Evidence from Healthcare Referral Networks.Management science · 2022Article
- Physician Network Breadth and Plan Quality Ratings in Medicare Advantage.JAMA health forum · 2021Article
- The Causal Effects of Place on Health and Longevity.The journal of economic perspectives : a journal of the American Economic Association · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Competition in health insurance markets may fail to improve health outcomes if consumers are not able to identify high quality plans. We develop and apply a novel instrumental variables framework to quantify the variation in causal mortality effects across plans and how much consumers attend to this variation. We first document large differences in the observed mortality rates of Medicare Advantage plans within local markets. We then show that when plans with high (low) mortality rates exit these markets, enrollees tend to switch to more typical plans and subsequently experience lower (higher) mortality. We derive and validate a novel "fallback condition" governing the subsequent choices of those affected by plan exits. When the fallback condition is satisfied, plan terminations can be used to estimate the relationship between observed plan mortality rates and causal mortality effects. Applying the framework, we find that mortality rates unbiasedly predict causal mortality effects. We then extend our framework to study other predictors of plan mortality effects and estimate consumer willingness to pay. Higher spending plans tend to reduce enrollee mortality, but existing quality ratings are uncorrelated with plan mortality effects. Consumers place little weight on mortality effects when choosing plans. Good insurance plans dramatically reduce mortality, and redirecting consumers to such plans could improve beneficiary health.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.