State Health Insurance Regulations and the Price of High-Deductible Policies

Abstract

This study examines the impact of state regulations on the price of high-deductible family and individual polices in the non-group market. We use a unique and rich data set on actual insurance policies sold through a large internet health insurance distributor to examine the impact of various regulations on policy prices controlling for policy characteristics, demographic characteristics of the purchasers, and state-level demographics. We also use data from a single major insurance firm which provided offer prices for a family policy from a set of randomly selected zip codes. Both datasets suggest a strong statistical relationship between regulation and insurance prices.