Health Services Research
Vol. 49, Issue 3, Pages 878–892
June 2014
Abstract
Objective: To examine the relationship between insurance market structure and
health care prices, utilization, and spending. Data Sources Claims for
37.6 million privately insured employees and their dependents from the
Truven Health Market Scan Database in 2009. Measures of insurer market
structure derived from Health Leaders Inter study data. Methods:
Regression models are used to estimate the association between
insurance market concentration and health care spending, utilization,
and price, adjusting for differences in patient characteristics and
other market-level traits. Results: Insurance market concentration is
inversely related to prices and spending, but positively related to
utilization. Our results imply that, after adjusting for input price
differences, a market with two equal size insurers is associated with
3.9 percent lower medical care spending per capita ( p = .002) and 5.0
percent lower prices for health care services relative to one with
three equal size insurers ( p .001). Conclusion: Greater fragmentation
in the insurance market might lead to higher prices and higher spending
for care, suggesting some of the gains from insurer competition may be
absorbed by higher prices for health care. Greater attention to prices
and utilization in the provider market may need to accompany
procompetitive insurance market strategies.
Citation
McKellar, Michael R., Sivia Naimer, Mary B. Landrum, Teresa B. Gibson, Amitabh Chandra, and Michael Chernew. "Insurer Market Structure and Variation in Commercial Health Care Spending." Health Services Research 49.3 (June 2014): 878–892.