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Risk Attitudes And The Demand For Private Health Insurance: The Importance Of ‘Captive Preferences’

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  • Joan Costa‐Font
  • Jaume García‐Villar

Abstract

ABSTRACT**: Captivity to a mainstream public insurer, is hypothesized to constrain the choice of purchasing private health insurance, by influencing risk attitudes. Namely, risk averse individuals are more likely to stay captive to the National Health System (NHS). To empirically test this hypothesis we use a small scale database from Catalonia to explore the determinants of private health insurance (PHI) purchase under different forms of captivity along with a measure of risk attitudes. Our results confirm that the captivity corrections are significant and can potentially bias the estimates of the demand for PHI. Risk aversion increases the probability of an individual being captive to the NHS. The latter suggests a potential behavioural (or cultural) mechanism to isolate the influence of risk attitudes on the demand for PHI in publicly financed health systems.

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  • Joan Costa‐Font & Jaume García‐Villar, 2009. "Risk Attitudes And The Demand For Private Health Insurance: The Importance Of ‘Captive Preferences’," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(4), pages 499-519, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:annpce:v:80:y:2009:i:4:p:499-519
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8292.2009.00396.x
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    3. Kiil, Astrid, 2012. "Private health insurance and the use of health care services - a review of the theoretical literature with application to voluntary private health insurance in universal health care systems," DaCHE discussion papers 2012:1, University of Southern Denmark, Dache - Danish Centre for Health Economics.
    4. Kettlewell, Nathan, 2020. "Subjective Expectations for Health Service Use and Consequences for Health Insurance Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 13445, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Alaitz Artabe & Waleska Sigüenza, 2019. "The effects of the economic recession on spending on private health insurance in Spain," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 155-191, June.
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    7. Vo, Thang T. & Van, Pham Hoang, 2019. "Can health insurance reduce household vulnerability? Evidence from Viet Nam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Xiaoxiao Li & Wen Mao & Peter A. Zaleski & Catherine Kenny, 2023. "The Ends Against the Middle: The Case of Municipal Golf," Public Finance Review, , vol. 51(3), pages 339-367, May.

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