Health Insurance Markets

Risk Selection

Increasing diversity of insurance products in the market (see the Benefit Design and Consumerism issue area) raises concerns about the adverse impact of risk segmentation within employer groups, across groups, and in the nongroup market. This area of the Institute’s work focuses on various solutions to risk segmentation problems, including risk adjustment, purchasing pools and “exchanges,” and strategies for improving the nongroup market.

For more information please contact Laura Tollen.

Publications August 2004 Risk Segmentation Related to the Offering of a Consumer-Directed Health Plan, Laura A. Tollen, Murray N. Ross, and Stephen Poor, Health Services Research 39, no.4, Part II October 23, 2002 The Nongroup Market as One Element of a Broader Coverage-Expansion Strategy, Laura A. Tollen, Robert M. Crane, Ruth Liu, and Steve Zatkin, Health Affairs Web Exclusive: W-383 – W-386 April 2002 A Temporary Fix? Implications of the Move Away from Comprehensive Health Benefits, Laura A. Tollen and Robert M. Crane, EBRI Issue Brief #244, (Employee Benefit Research Institute) March 2001 The Role of Health Care Purchasing Pools in Improving the Functioning of the Small Group and Individual Markets, Laura A. Tollen and Robert M. Crane, Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy, Oakland, CA August 2004 Current MSA Theory: Well-Meaning but Futile, G. Halvorson, Health Services Research 39 no.4, Part II:1119-22.

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