Imagine if you bought an airline ticket to fly from San Francisco to Chicago and after the flight you received an extra bill from the co-pilot for what he claims is a fair price for his services. He is unsatisfied with the airline's pay, and would like you and your fellow passengers to make up the difference.
A benefit mandate is a state law that commands a health plan to pay for, or at least offer, a specified treatment or type of provider, removing the benefit from negotiation between beneficiaries and health plans. For example, a mandate may require a health plan to cover treatment of alcoholism, or chiropractic services.
This paper reviews 28 original actuarial and econometric articles that attempt to estimate the cost of benefit mandates, as well as others that summarize the literature on mandates during the last two decades of their development.
