Applying the Medicare Stars System to the Private Individual Health Insurance Market Under the Affordable Care Act
Open Access
Author:
Hedges, Robert Alan
Area of Honors:
Actuarial Science
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Richard Lee London, Thesis Supervisor Ron Gebhardtsbauer, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
actuarial healthcare insurance medicare
Abstract:
With the increased importance of health insurance for individuals under the Individual Mandate of the Affordable Care Act, this research applies a system used in Medicare in order to improve the current system for this type of insurance. The Affordable Care Act introduced a plan rating system that assesses Medicare Advantage plans on their quality of care and management of chronic conditions, to help push the idea of improved quality of care for patients. These ratings link directly with the financial payments from the government in order to incentivize companies to improve their health care services and achieve higher ratings. By using the Medicare system as a case study, this paper will examine the effectiveness of this system over the past five years for Medicare, and will determine if a similar system would be applicable and beneficial for the private individual health insurance market.
