International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics 
This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.
This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.The effects of the economic recession on spending on private health insurance in Spain
AbstractThe paper seeks to analyse the evolution of expenditure on private health insurance (PHI) in Spain. We consider the factors that influence PHI demand and level of spending before and during the economic recession, along with identifying the effect of the recession on these factors. The data is obtained from the Spanish Family Budget Survey (SFBS) for 2006 and 2012. Due to the data structure and the demand function, the analysis is performed using a sample selection model in order to avoid sample selection bias. We estimate three models: a pre-recession model (2006), a model for the recession period (2012) and a thi...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 22, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: research
Is health care a luxury or necessity good? Evidence from Asian countries
This study investigates long run relationship between health care expenditure and real income in fifteen selected Asian countries over the period 1995 –2014 using the panel cointegration tests and controlling for cross-sectional dependence through unobserved common correlated factors (UCFs). The results show that health care expenditure and income are cointegrated. It is found that the income elasticity scales down when UCFs are controlled, whic h implies that ignoring UCFs produces biased and inconsistent estimates. The Mean Group and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group estimates reveal that long run income elasticity ...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 21, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: research
Critical Illness Insurance to alleviate catastrophic health expenditures: new evidence from China
AbstractCurrently, a high percentage of China ’s households face financial catastrophe as a direct result of excessive out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditures. To alleviate this, China has set up the Critical Illness Insurance (CII) program since 2012. However, the current CII is still in an experimental phase and tested in 8 (out of 34) prov inces, which has not been proved to be effective. This paper develops a health financing system for reducing catastrophic medical spending using a two-layer model for CII. This model partly compensates expenses exceeding the cap line of the Social Resident Basic Medical Insurance sc...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 21, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: research
Is health care a luxury or necessity good? Evidence from Asian countries
This study investigates long run relationship between health care expenditure and real income in fifteen selected Asian countries over the period 1995 –2014 using the panel cointegration tests and controlling for cross-sectional dependence through unobserved common correlated factors (UCFs). The results show that health care expenditure and income are cointegrated. It is found that the income elasticity scales down when UCFs are controlled, whic h implies that ignoring UCFs produces biased and inconsistent estimates. The Mean Group and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group estimates reveal that long run income elasticity ...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 21, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: research
Impact of commercial over-reimbursement on hospitals: the curious case of central Indiana
AbstractAn employer coalition in Indiana sponsored a study by the Rand Corporation examining commercial insurer payments as a percent of Medicare. The employers sought to understand why their health care costs were high and increasing. The study showed that, on average, their insurer was paying three times what Medicare pays for the same services. In this, a follow-up study, we demonstrate that these high payments resulted in very high profit margins for central Indiana ’s major health systems, along with elevated costs and poor performance on key efficiency measures. We also see indications that hospitals appear to be u...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 6, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: research
Impacts of chronic non-communicable diseases on households ’ out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures in Sri Lanka
This article examines the effects of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on households ’ out-of-pocket health expenditures in Sri Lanka. We explore the disease specific impacts on out-of-pocket health care expenses from chronic NCDs such as heart diseases, hypertension, cancer, diabetics and asthma. We use nationwide cross-sectional household income and expenditure survey 2012/2013 data compiled by the department of census and statistics of Sri Lanka. Employing propensity score matching method to account for selectivity bias, we find that chronic NCD affected households appear to spend significantly higher out-of-po...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 1, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: research
Do coverage mandates affect direct-to-consumer advertising for pharmaceuticals? Evidence from parity laws
AbstractDirect-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) for prescription drugs is a relatively unique feature of the US health care system and a source of tens of billions of dollars in annual spending. It has also garnered the attention of researchers and policymakers interested in its implications for firm and consumer behavior. However, few economic studies have explored the DTCA response to public policies, especially those mandating coverage of these products. We use detailed advertising expenditure data to assess if pharmaceutical firms increase their marketing efforts after the implementation of relevant state and federal hea...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 1, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: research
Do the more educated utilize more health care services? Evidence from Vietnam using a regression discontinuity design
AbstractIn 1991, Vietnam implemented a compulsory primary schooling reform that provides this study a natural experiment to estimate the causal effect of education on health care utilization with a regression discontinuity design. This paper finds that education causes statistically significant impacts on health care utilization, although the signs of the impacts change with specific types of health care services examined. In particular, education increases the inpatient utilization of the public health sector, but it reduces the outpatient utilization of both the public and private health sectors. The estimates are strong...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 1, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: research
The impact of subsidized private health insurance and health facility upgrades on healthcare utilization and spending in rural Nigeria
AbstractThis paper analyzes the quantitative impact of an intervention that provides subsidized low-cost private health insurance together with health facility upgrades in Nigeria. The evaluation, which measures impact on healthcare utilization and spending, is based on a quasi-experimental design and utilizes three population-based household surveys over a 4-year period. After 4 years, the intervention increased healthcare use by 25.2 percentage points in the treatment area overall and by 17.7 percentage points among the insured. Utilization of modern healthcare facilities increased after 4 years by 20.4 percentage points...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - September 1, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: research
Medicaid expansions and labor supply among low-income childless adults: evidence from 2000 to 2013
AbstractMedicaid expansions to low-income childless adults could have unintended effects on labor supply. Using 2000 –2013 current population survey data, we exploit changes in adult Medicaid eligibility across states to estimate its effect on labor supply for three samples of adults most likely to be affected by changes in Medicaid eligibility: those with less than a high school degree, a high school degree onl y, and income less than 300% of the federal poverty line. Medicaid eligibility was associated with a reduction in labor supply for low-income women with a high school degree. In our preferred estimations, these w...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - August 25, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: research
Estimating asymmetric information effects in health care with uninsurable costs
AbstractWe use a structural approach to separately estimate moral hazard and adverse selection effects in health care utilization using hospital invoices data. Our model explicitly accounts for the heterogeneity in the non-insurable transactions costs associated with hospital visits which increase the individuals ’ total cost of health care and dampen the moral hazard effect. A measure of moral hazard is derived as the difference between the observed and the counterfactual health care consumption. In the population of patients with non life-threatening diagnoses, our results indicate statistically signific ant and econom...
Source: International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics - July 14, 2018 Category: Health Management Source Type: research
