TY  - JOUR
AU  - Clark, Robert
AU  - Morrill, Melinda
AU  - Vanderweide, David
TI  - The Effects of Retiree Health Insurance Plan Characteristics on Retirees' Choice and Employers' Costs
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 19566
PY  - 2013
Y2  - October 2013
DO  - 10.3386/w19566
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w19566
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w19566.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Robert L. Clark
Poole College of Management
Box 7229
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695
Tel: 919/515-4568
Fax: 919/515-6943
E-Mail: robert_clark@ncsu.edu

Melinda S. Morrill
Department of Economics
North Carolina State University
Campus Box 8110
Raleigh, NC 27695-8110
E-Mail: melinda_morrill@ncsu.edu

David Vanderweide
Fiscal Analyst
Fiscal Research Division
North Carolina General Assembly
Raleigh, NC  27601
Raleigh, NC
USA
E-Mail: david.vanderweide@ncleg.net
M1  - published as Robert Clark, Melinda Morrill, David Vanderweide. "The Effects of Retiree Health Insurance Plan Characteristics on Retirees' Choice and Employers' Costs," in Robert Clark and Joseph Newhouse, organizers, "State and Local Health Plans for Active and Retired Public Employees" Journal of Health Economics, Volume 38 (2014)

M3  - presented at "State and Local Health Plans Conference", August 16-17, 2013
AB  - To moderate the rate of growth of retiree health insurance costs, employers can modify plans and move retirees into less expensive plans.  We examine policy modifications implemented by the North Carolina State Health Plan.  We investigate whether incentives produce the desired plan elections and whether these changes, along with cost shifting, produce the expected reductions in cost growth.  Using individual-level administrative data, along with aggregated data on expenditures for retirees, we estimate the effects of the introduction and subsequent repeal of a Comprehensive Wellness Initiative for non-Medicare eligible retirees, as well as increases in coinsurance and copayments and the introduction of a premium for all retirees.  Over a third of non-Medicare retirees shifted into the least generous plan between June 2009 and December 2012.  The level effects on annual costs and unfunded accrued liabilities were relatively modest, but growth rates were diminished.  Increases in the retiree premiums reduced projected costs.
ER  -