Question: Medicare recipients can purchase supplemental private insurance (known as Medigap insurance) to fill the gap in coverage left by Medicare. This gap includes copayments, deductibles, and prescription drug expenses not covered by Medicare. Several years ago, the government enacted regulations that spreify minimum standards for items that Medigap policies must cover. This made the policies more expensive, and as a consequence, about 25 percent of the elderly who would have purchased some Medigap insurance purchased none at all [Finkelstein, 2004]. Consider an individual who consumes two goods, "insurance" and "all other goods.
- The cost of a unit of Medigap insurance is $1, as is the cost of a unit of all other goods. Sketch a budget constraint and set of indifference curves that are consistent with the following scenario: In an unregulated market, an individual with a $30,000 income purchases $5,000 worth of Medigap insurance. The government then puts mandates on Medigap policies that raise their minimum price to $8,000; that is, the individual must purchase at least $8,000 units of Medigap insurance or none at all. After considering the matter, the individual decides to go without Medigap insurance.