Estimating the Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Labor and Insurance Markets
Many changes will result from the Affordable Care Act. This panel contains three papers using microeconomic simulation and health plan premium estimation to gauge likely changes to labor and health insurance markets from the law. The first paper by Dowd, Feldman, Parente and Spetz uses a micro-simulation model to predict the impact of the 2010 law on the change in provider wages that will result from the 2014 implementation of the law. The second paper by Karaca-Manic, Simon and Abraham and Feldman focuses on specific behavioral responses of insurers to the MLR regulation and to asses how these actions intentionally or unintentionally affect consumer well being. They use panel data on insurers from 2010-2012 from NAIC and test the empirical implications of their MLR model by investigating insurers' responses to the MLR regulation in the individual, small group and large group markets during the first two years compared to insurer behavior prior to the law. The third paper by Frogner and Parente focuses on the impact of explicit enforcement of the Qualified Health Plan (QHP) requirements on the insurer market from 2014 to 2023. They use 2013 premium and benefit design data abstracted from ehealth insurance.com and app to microsimulation model.