Findings from a study, published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, showed no evidence of consumers learning to price shop after two years in high-deductible coverage. The researchers studied how consumers respond to the complex structure of the high-deductible contract. They found consumers respond heavily to spot prices at the time of care, reducing their spending by 42% when under the deductible, conditional on their true expected end-of-year price and their prior year end-of-year marginal price. There is no evidence of learning to respond to the true shadow price in the second year post-switch.
Read more:
- What does a Deductible Do? The Impact of Cost-Sharing on Health Care Prices, Quantities, and Spending Dynamics. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 132, Issue 3, August 2017