Second, past studies generally need to impute prices for those
who do not have insurance or cannot recall their premium price,
which likely downwardly biases estimated price sensitivities.
Given that in the current environment, prices can be undefined
(e.g., insurance companies can deny coverage to applicants with
pre-existing conditions), assuming that each individual faces a
finite going price can lead to underestimates of consumer demand
as some individuals will be assumed to be turning down an offer
when in fact they were denied coverage. We find that uninsured
individuals are more likely to have been denied coverage in the
past, suggesting that the bias induced by assuming that the going
price applies to everyone could be especially important in estimating
demand among the currently uninsured.