We designed our survey experiment in an attempt to address
these and other challenges faced by past studies. First, our sampling
frame allows us to gather a large group of uninsured individuals in
order to directly elicit their willingness to pay for health insurance.
Second, we present individuals with a specific, comprehensive
insurance product, so that plan quality does not vary across individuals.
Third, we offer hypothetical premiums to respondents and
vary the mexogenously, so there is noneedto imputeprices. Finally,
our survey experiment permitsus to estimate a range for eachuninsured
individual’s willingness to pay for health insurance, which
enables a more textured analysis of the characteristics of individuals
who would likely take up health insurance under reforms
such as the Affordable Care Act than is possible with an aggregate
demand elasticity. Overall, our results suggest that using the
demand curves estimated in much past work may under-estimate
the effect of policies to extend coverage to the uninsured.