Do increased premium subsidies affect how much health insurance is purchased? Evidence from the self-employed.

This paper estimates the effect of recent federal and state level increases in the deductibility of health insurance premiums for self-employed individuals, which reduced the after-tax price of health insurance, on both the take-up of coverage and the amount of insurance purchased. Using a panel of tax returns filed by self-employed taxpayers from 1999 to 2004, we estimate a take-up elasticity of -0.316 overall, with significantly higher elasticities for single taxpayers. On the intensive margin, we find an elasticity of -0.733 overall.