Grant: #73782
Grantee Institution: Stanford University
Principal Investigator: Maria Polyakova, Ph.D.
Grant Period: September 1, 2016 - February 28, 2017
Budget: $100,000
This project is funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s solicitation “Policy-Relevant Insurance Studies” (PRIS), which supports studies that evaluate or predict the effects of policies or policy changes related to health insurance coverage. The goal of this research is to provide consumers and policymakers with evidence on the extent to which financial risk protection varies across health insurance marketplace plans. Understanding differences in financial risk protection should facilitate the development of measures that help consumers choose plans that provide better protection from financial risk associated with unexpected health shocks. Using data from Truven Health Analytics, this project will create a measure of risk protection for plans on the online marketplaces that reflect insurance plan affordability along with premiums and expected out-of-pocket costs. The project will focus on developing measures that can be implemented with simple information elicitations from potential enrollees.
Publications
Marketplace Plans Provide Risk Protection, but Actuarial Values Overstate Realized Coverage for Most Enrollees
Health Affairs | December 2017