The Affordable Care Act and Property-Casualty Insurance

Overview

The property-casualty insurance industry is likely to become the target of significant additional cost-shifting by hospitals, physicians, and other medical providers responding to the cost-containment provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA dramatically alters healthcare markets and health insurance systems in the United States. Although the property-casualty insurance industry is not directly included or targeted by the act, it is not entirely immune to its effects. As a purchaser of healthcare services and as a participant in healthcare markets, the property-casualty industry finds itself in a changed environment, where the medical providers with whom they engage and the claimants they serve are themselves confronted by major changes related to the ACA. Increased cost-shifting could have potentially significant and long-lasting consequences for property-casualty insurance. Cost-containment efforts by other public and private health insurance systems are likely to result in higher billings and higher utilization when property-casualty insurance claims are involved in the months and years ahead, as medical providers seek to offset lost revenue from health insurance sources. Strengthening the tools available to property-casualty insurers to address higher charges and higher utilization of medical services should be considered. The following chart summarizes our assessment of each potential pathway by which the act could affect the property-casualty industry.

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