nep-ias New Economics Papers
on Insurance Economics
Issue of 2018‒01‒01
three papers chosen by
Soumitra K. Mallick
Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management

  1. The Affordable Care Act, Public Insurance Expansion and Opioid Overdose Mortality By Mark McInerney
  2. Spain; Financial Sector Assessment Program-Technical Note-Insurance Sector Supervision and Regulation By International Monetary Fund
  3. Healthy Babies: Does Prenatal Care Really Matter? By Ji Yan

  1. By: Mark McInerney (University of Connecticut)
    Abstract: This study examines the impact of expanded public insurance, resulting from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, on opioid related mortality. I utilize variation in states’ decisions to expand Medicaid and variation in the timing of expansion among expanding states to measure this impact. Opioid related mortality data are examined from 1999-2015 using the National Vital Statistics multiple cause of death files. My findings suggest that public insurance expansion led to reductions in opioid related overdose deaths for heroin and other narcotics by about 26% and increases in methadone related deaths by about 18%. My study builds on recent work that shows increases in prescriptions to treat opioid use disorder in expanding states relative to non-expanding states.
    Keywords: Opioids, Substance Use Disorder, Medicaid, Medicaid Expansion, Public Insurance
    JEL: I13 I12 I14 H75
    Date: 2017–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:uconnp:2017-23&r=ias
  2. By: International Monetary Fund
    Abstract: This Technical Note (TN) provides an update on the Spanish insurance sector and an analysis of certain key aspects of the regulatory and supervisory regime. This FSAP is most supportive of the government’s announcement that the DGSFP (Directorate General of Insurance and Pension Funds) will become an independent insurance supervisory authority. This aligns with the recommendations of the IMF during its FSAP’s in both 2006 and 2012. As an agency of the Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness (Ministerio de Economía, Industria, y Competitividad) (MdE) currently, DGSFP is subject to overall government budget constraints which directly affect the ability of the DGSFP to carry out its mandate. As an independent authority, it should have the authority to fund its programs on its own via fees levied on the industry, yet be accountable for those costs, to the stakeholders.
    Keywords: Europe;Spain;
    Date: 2017–11–13
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfscr:17/338&r=ias
  3. By: Ji Yan
    Abstract: Recent economic literature on child development has underscored the importance of giving babies a healthy start. Despite the widespread use of prenatal care, whether this early investment improves infant health is not well understood. This study provides new causal evidence on this crucial issue using 1.4 million sibling births. The baseline within-family analysis yields robust evidence that either early care onset or an increase in visits has a salient payoff in terms of newborn health stock. Furthermore, this study exploits two quasi-experiments to respectively deal with potential bias in the within-mother estimates and investigate the effectiveness of prenatal care under a Medicaid managed care reform. Overall, the results suggest it is important to improve care access for childbearing women especially those with low socioeconomic status. Moreover, caution is needed in design and delivery of managed care plans not to undermine provision of adequate prenatal care. Key Words: prenatal care; infant health; early childhood environment; in utero health investments; Medicaid managed care; sibling data
    JEL: I12 I18
    Date: 2017
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:apl:wpaper:17-09&r=ias

This nep-ias issue is ©2018 by Soumitra K. Mallick. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.