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Capping risk adjustment?

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  • Eugster, Patrick
  • Sennhauser, Michèle
  • Zweifel, Peter

Abstract

When premiums are community-rated, risk adjustment (RA) serves to mitigate competitive insurers' incentive to select favorable risks. However, unless fully prospective, it also undermines their incentives for efficiency. By capping its volume, one may try to counteract this tendency, exposing insurers to some financial risk. This in term runs counter the quest to refine the RA formula, which would increase RA volume. Specifically, the adjuster, "Hospitalization or living in a nursing home during the previous year" will be added in Switzerland starting 2012. This paper investigates how to minimize the opportunity cost of capping RA in terms of increased incentives for risk selection.

Suggested Citation

  • Eugster, Patrick & Sennhauser, Michèle & Zweifel, Peter, 2010. "Capping risk adjustment?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 499-507, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:29:y:2010:i:4:p:499-507
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. H. E. Frech & Peter Zweifel, 2017. "Market Socialism and Community Rating in Health Insurance," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 59(3), pages 405-427, September.
    2. Michele Sennhauser, 2009. "Why the Linear Utility Function is a Risky Choice in Discrete-Choice Experiments," SOI - Working Papers 1014, Socioeconomic Institute - University of Zurich.
    3. Polk, Andreas & Schmutzler, Armin & Müller, Adrian, 2014. "Lobbying and the power of multinational firms," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 209-227.
    4. Peter Zweifel, 2013. "The present state of health economics: a critique and an agenda for the future," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 14(4), pages 569-571, August.

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