Summary

Description

Health insurance crowd-out occurs when individuals enrolled in a public health insurance plan would have enrolled in a private plan but for the public option. The crowding-out of private insurance is often used to criticize state Medicaid and Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expansion, as already insured children move their coverage to the states at the publics expense. A difficulty in discussing crowd-out comes from inconsistent estimates. Previous work focusing on the expansion of public programs has led to estimates ranging from 0 to 50 percent of the children newly insured on public plans being crowded-out.