1 option
Free for Children? Patient Cost-sharing and Healthcare Utilization / Toshiaki Iizuka, Hitoshi Shigeoka.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Iizuka, Toshiaki.
- Series:
- Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w25306.
- NBER working paper series no. w25306
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.
- Summary:
- This study exploits over 5,000 variations in subsidy generosity across ages and municipalities in Japan to examine how children respond to healthcare prices. We find that free care significantly increases outpatient spending, with price elasticities considerably smaller than for adults. Price responses are substantially larger when small copayments are introduced, indicating more elastic demand around a zero price. We also find that increased utilization primarily reflects low-value and costly care: increased outpatient spending neither reduces subsequent hospitalization by "avoidable" conditions nor improves short- or medium-term health outcomes. By contrast, inappropriate use of antibiotics and costly after-hours visits increase.
- Notes:
- Print version record
- November 2018.
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.