The California Simulation of Insurance Markets (CalSIM) model is a tool used to estimate the impact of federal and state policies on employer decisions to offer insurance coverage and individual decisions to obtain coverage in California. The model was developed by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. The model architecture overview is provided in section II, which includes a flow diagram for input data set creation and decision modeling. Section III provides an overview of the Affordable Care Act and California health insurance policies, including employer-sponsored insurance related provisions, individual coverage related provisions, and changes to standards of private insurance plans. Section IV provides information on the CalSIM individual and firm level data, including the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), imputing documentation status, medical expenditures, modified adjusted gross income, program eligibility, California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data, and California Employer Health Benefit Survey (CEHBS) data. Section V provides information on the CalSIM data construction, including the simulated annealing algorithm, target statistics, firm assignment, and other key inputs into CalSIM, such as the minimum wage and population projections.
