What do health insurance deductibles do to health care spending growth?

Claudio Lucarelli, Molly Frean, Aliza S Gordon, Lynn M Hua, Mark V Pauly

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in International journal of health economics and management, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Claudio LucarelliThe Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 3641 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.

Molly FreanAnalysis Group, Boston, MA, USA.

Aliza S GordonElevance Health Public Policy Institute, Washington, DC, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4565-0771

Lynn M HuaRobinson College of Business, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3681-7202

Mark V PaulyThe Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 3641 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA. pauly@wharton.upenn.edu.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Costly new technology, while often beneficial, has been identified as one of the principal drivers of healthcare spending growth. Recent literature has shown high deductible health plans (HDHPs) can have an immediate negative impact on levels of healthcare spending, but their effects on spending growth remain unknown. Analyzing a panel of multiple-employer-group claims data from a national insurer that is extensive enough to identify long run effects on spending growth, we find that enrollment in HDHPs for four or more years is not associated with lower total health care spending growth (or lower growth in medical services spending) compared to persistent enrollment in low deductible health plans (LDHP).

Indexed as

Deductibles and CoinsuranceHealth ExpendituresInsurance, HealthHumansUnited StatesHealth insuranceHigh deductibleInsurance plansSpending growth

Identifiers

PMID42189379

DOI10.1007/s10754-026-09416-y

PMCPMC13212387

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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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.