American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Heterogeneity in Choice Inconsistencies among the Elderly: Evidence from Prescription Drug Plan Choice
American Economic Review
vol. 101,
no. 3, May 2011
(pp. 377–81)
Abstract
This paper investigates the degree to which choice inconsistencies documented in the context of Medicare Part D plan choice vary across consumers and geographic regions. Our main finding is that there is surprisingly little variation: regardless of age, gender, predicted drug expenditures or the predictability of drug demand consumers underweight out of pocket costs relative to premiums and fail to consider the individualized consequences of plan characteristics; as a result, they frequently choose plans which are dominated in the sense that an alternative plan provides better risk protection at a lower cost. We find limited evidence that the sickest individuals had more difficulty with plan choice, and we document that much of the variation in potential cost savings across states comes from variation in choice sets, not variation in consumers ability to choose.Citation
Abaluck, Jason, and Jonathan Gruber. 2011. "Heterogeneity in Choice Inconsistencies among the Elderly: Evidence from Prescription Drug Plan Choice." American Economic Review, 101 (3): 377–81. DOI: 10.1257/aer.101.3.377JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
- J14 Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-labor Market Discrimination