Zarek C. Brot-Goldberg
Yale University
Institution for Social and Policy Studies
77 Prospect St
New Haven, CT 06511
E-Mail: 
Institutional Affiliation: Yale University
Information about this author at RePEc
NBER Working Papers and Publications
| October 2015 | What Does a Deductible Do? The Impact of Cost-Sharing on Health Care Prices, Quantities, and Spending Dynamics
with Amitabh Chandra, Benjamin R. Handel, Jonathan T. Kolstad: w21632
Measuring consumer responsiveness to medical care prices is a central issue in health economics and a key ingredient in the optimal design and regulation of health insurance markets. We study consumer responsiveness to medical care prices, leveraging a natural experiment that occurred at a large self-insured firm which required all of its employees to switch from an insurance plan that provided free health care to a non-linear, high deductible plan. The switch caused a spending reduction between 11.79%-13.80% of total firm-wide health spending. We decompose this spending reduction into the components of (i) consumer price shopping (ii) quantity reductions and (iii) quantity substitutions, finding that spending reductions are entirely due to outright reductions in quantity. We find no evide... Published: Zarek C. Brot-Goldberg & Amitabh Chandra & Benjamin R. Handel & Jonathan T. Kolstad, 2017. "What does a Deductible Do? The Impact of Cost-Sharing on Health Care Prices, Quantities, and Spending Dynamics*," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol 132(3), pages 1261-1318. citation courtesy of 
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