Charity Care, Risk Pooling, and the Decline in Private Health Insurance

Michael Chernew, David Cutler, Patricia Seliger Keenan
2005 The American Economic Review  
Word count (including footnotes): 2483 Charity Care, Risk Pooling, and the Decline in Private Health Insurance: Chernew, Cutler, Keenan Over the past several decades health care costs have increased substantially, and the share of the population with insurance coverage has decreased. Relative to GDP, medical care today accounts for 75 percent more of the economy than it did in 1980. At the same time, the share of the non-elderly population that is uninsured has increased by roughly 4 percentage
more » ... points since 1987. To what extent is the increase in the cost of health insurance responsible for the decline in coverage?
doi:10.1257/000282805774669600 fatcat:jhxlivy5pzcctm5b6pvou656ri