When social assistance meets market power: A mixed duopoly view of health insurance in the United States.

We develop a mixed duopoly model with quality‐differentiated products. The public firm offers its product for free to eligible individuals, while the private firm chooses its product quality and price to maximize profit. We calibrate the model to health insurance for the U.S. working‐age population,...

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Published in:Economic Inquiry Vol. 61; no. 4; pp. 851 - 870
Main Authors: Ranasinghe, Ashantha, Su, Xuejuan
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Oct2023
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Oct2023
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        atl: When social assistance meets market power: A mixed duopoly view of health insurance in the United States.
      aug:
        au:
          Ranasinghe, Ashantha
          Su, Xuejuan
        affil: Department of Economics, University of Alberta, Edmonton Alberta, , Canada
      su:
        United States
        Health insurance
        Medicaid
        Market power
        Going public (Securities)
        Product quality
        Health insurance exchanges
      sug:
        subj:
          Health insurance
          Medicaid
          United States
          Direct individual life, health and medical insurance carriers
          Direct group life, health and medical insurance carriers
          Administration of Human Resource Programs (except Education, Public Health, and Veterans' Affairs Programs)
          Market power
          Going public (Securities)
          Product quality
          Health insurance exchanges
      keyword:
        distributional effects
        mixed duopoly
        public provision of private goods
        quality differentiation
        distributional effects
        mixed duopoly
        public provision of private goods
        quality differentiation
      ab: We develop a mixed duopoly model with quality‐differentiated products. The public firm offers its product for free to eligible individuals, while the private firm chooses its product quality and price to maximize profit. We calibrate the model to health insurance for the U.S. working‐age population, with Medicaid being the public firm. We examine distributional implications of policies that expand Medicaid to various degrees. Despite potentially significant inefficiency of Medicaid, its expansion is welfare improving. Central to these findings is the significant market power of the private firm when left unchecked, which is increasingly disciplined as more individuals become Medicaid eligible.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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