Tony LoSasso
Professor
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison Office of the Chancellor 163 Bascom Hall 500 Lincoln Drive Madison, WI 53706
Tony Lo Sasso is the Robert F. and Sylvia T. Wagner Professor of Public Affairs in the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research spans multiple areas, including health and labor economics, health policy, and health services and outcomes research. Lo Sasso has secured funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and numerous private foundations. With over 80 publications, he is highly interested in how government policies influence private-sector decisions and how market forces can be used to improve the healthcare sector and, ultimately, the health of the American public.
Topics
Appearances (1)
2026-10-13
Navigating the ACA: Why Silver Plans Now Cost More Than GoldIn the latest episode of the Health Policy Podcast, host Bryan Hyde speaks with Tony LoSasso, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about the rising costs of silver health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). LoSasso explains how misaligned incentives and policy design have led to silver plans costing more than gold plans in many ACA marketplaces, a situation that has resulted in inflated premiums and disrupted enrollment. He proposes restructuring premium tax credits and funding cost-sharing subsidies to stabilize the market and reduce costs for consumers.
Notable quotes
“I like to think about it as trade-offs and how individuals make decisions under constraints and uncertainty, which is, of course, a big feature of healthcare utilization.”
“This is not a fraud thing. This is not a— there's not really even a quote unquote bad guy in this. It really is just about misaligned incentives and sort of bad policy design.”
“What happens then is that you get an inflated silver premium. And so, okay, what happens next? Well, along with that inflated silver premium comes an inflated premium tax credit.”
“If you do that, if you fund the subsidies outside of this shoehorning it into the premium, the CBO and others have calculated that you actually save money.”
“I think it skews individuals' behavior. It skews insurers' behavior. And it prevents a robust competitive market for insurance.”
“Link it to medical CPI, link it to CPI, something like that. And then now let the insurers compete, force the insurers to compete on price more directly.”
