TY  - JOUR
AU  - Pauly, Mark V
AU  - Herring, Bradley
AU  - Song, David
TI  - Tax Credits, the Distribution of Subsidized Health Insurance Premiums, and the Uninsured
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8457
PY  - 2001
Y2  - September 2001
DO  - 10.3386/w8457
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8457
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8457.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Mark Pauly
Health Care Management Department
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
208 Colonial Penn Center
3641 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA  19104-6218
E-Mail: pauly@wharton.upenn.edu

Bradley Herring
E-Mail: bradley.herring@unh.edu
M1  - published as Mark V. Pauly, Bradley Herring, David Song. "Tax Credits, the Distribution of Subsidized Health Insurance Premiums, and the Uninsured," in Alan M. Garber, editor, "Frontiers in Health Policy Research, Volume 5" MIT Press (2002)

AB  - This paper investigates the impact of a $1000 refundable tax credit for self-only coverage on net premiums and insurance purchases for a representative sample of potential buyers in the individual insurance market.  Two methods are used to estimate the distribution of premiums:  predicted premiums based on a sample of actual purchasers, and premium quotations drawn from an e-insurance web site.  In most of the simulations, the net premiums for half or more of the prospective buyers are reduced to zero or low levels. The number of uninsured is reduced by between 21 percent and 85 percent depending on the size of the deductible in the benchmark plan.  However, the results are sensitive to assumptions about insurer underwriting practices.
ER  -