ABSTRACT
Competition among states for individuals and businesses is a perennial concern in the United States. When state health care reform was gaining significant momentum, there was fear that reforming states using employer mandates to finance expanded health insurance coverage would attract uninsured individuals and repel businesses. This chapter examines existing literature on individual and firm mobility to ask whether significant migration of individuals could be induced by a rise in interstate differences in health insurance benefits. It explores whether significant relocation of business firms could be caused by imposing costs of health care on businesses through employer mandates or other business taxes. The chapter addresses general issues of interstate competition, determinants of individual mobility, and determinants of firm mobility. It concludes that the migration effect on individuals of interstate variation in health insurance benefits is liable to be small.
