IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v91y2020icp233-246.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public provision of health insurance and aggregate saving in an overlapping generations model with endogenous health risk: The South Korean case

Author

Listed:
  • Lim, Kyoung Mook

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of expanding public health insurance in South Korea on medical expenditures and aggregate saving using an overlapping generations model with endogenous health risk. South Korea had a substantial underinsured population, which is aging rapidly. Higher public health insurance benefits reduce individual medical expenditure and health risks but lead to a modest decline in individual and aggregate saving. Even after the expansion, the medical care coverage remains incomplete, and the elderly face a substantial risk of out-of-pocket medical expenditures.

Suggested Citation

  • Lim, Kyoung Mook, 2020. "Public provision of health insurance and aggregate saving in an overlapping generations model with endogenous health risk: The South Korean case," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 233-246.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:91:y:2020:i:c:p:233-246
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2020.05.023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999319319480
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2020.05.023?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Diaz, Antonia & Pijoan-Mas, Josep & Rios-Rull, Jose-Victor, 2003. "Precautionary savings and wealth distribution under habit formation preferences," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 1257-1291, September.
    2. Berkovec, James & Stern, Steven, 1991. "Job Exit Behavior of Older Men," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(1), pages 189-210, January.
    3. Starr-McCluer, Martha, 1996. "Health Insurance and Precautionary Savings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 285-295, March.
    4. Ruger, J.P. & Kim, H.-J., 2007. "Out-of-pocket healthcare spending by the poor and chronically III in the republic of Korea," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(5), pages 804-811.
    5. Karen A. Kopecky & Tatyana Koreshkova, 2010. "The impact of medical and nursing home expenses and social insurance," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2010-19, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    6. Tauchen, George, 1986. "Statistical Properties of Generalized Method-of-Moments Estimators of Structural Parameters Obtained from Financial Market Data: Reply," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 4(4), pages 423-425, October.
    7. S. Rao Aiyagari, 1994. "Uninsured Idiosyncratic Risk and Aggregate Saving," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 659-684.
    8. Eddy van Doorslaer & Owen O'Donnell & Ravindra P. Rannan‐Eliya & Aparnaa Somanathan & Shiva Raj Adhikari & Charu C. Garg & Deni Harbianto & Alejandro N. Herrin & Mohammed Nazmul Huq & Shamsia Ibragimo, 2007. "Catastrophic payments for health care in Asia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(11), pages 1159-1184, November.
    9. Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French & John B. Jones, 2010. "Why Do the Elderly Save? The Role of Medical Expenses," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(1), pages 39-75, February.
    10. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    11. Jeske, Karsten & Kitao, Sagiri, 2009. "U.S. tax policy and health insurance demand: Can a regressive policy improve welfare?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 210-221, March.
    12. Brown, Sarah & Hole, Arne Risa & Kilic, Dilek, 2014. "Out-of-pocket health care expenditure in Turkey: Analysis of the 2003–2008 Household Budget Surveys," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 211-218.
    13. Hubbard, R. Glenn & Skinner, Jonathan & Zeldes, Stephen P., 1994. "The importance of precautionary motives in explaining individual and aggregate saving," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 59-125, June.
    14. Sven H. Sinclair & Kent A. Smetters, 2004. "Health Shocks and the Demand for Annuities: Technical Paper 2004-09," Working Papers 15868, Congressional Budget Office.
    15. Kwack, Sung Yeung & Lee, Young Sun, 2005. "What determines saving rates in Korea?: The role of demography," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 861-873, October.
    16. Carroll, Christopher D. & Samwick, Andrew A., 1997. "The nature of precautionary wealth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 41-71, September.
    17. Randall S. Jones, 2010. "Health-Care Reform in Korea," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 797, OECD Publishing.
    18. Conesa, Juan Carlos & Costa, Daniela & Kamali, Parisa & Kehoe, Timothy J. & Nygard, Vegard M. & Raveendranathan, Gajendran & Saxena, Akshar, 2018. "Macroeconomic effects of Medicare," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 11(C), pages 27-40.
    19. Chou, Shin-Yi & Liu, Jin-Tan & Hammitt, James K., 2003. "National Health Insurance and precautionary saving: evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 1873-1894, September.
    20. Guariglia, Alessandra & Rossi, Mariacristina, 2004. "Private medical insurance and saving: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 761-783, July.
    21. Randall S. JONES, 2012. "Meeting the Social Policy Challenges Facing Korea," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 7(1), pages 91-108, June.
    22. Juergen Jung & Chung Tran, 2009. "Health Care Financing over the Life Cycle, Universal Medical Vouchers and Welfare," Discussion Papers 2009-12, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    23. İmrohoroğlu, Ayşe & Zhao, Kai, 2018. "The chinese saving rate: Long-term care risks, family insurance, and demographics," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 33-52.
    24. Michael G. Palumbo, 1999. "Uncertain Medical Expenses and Precautionary Saving Near the End of the Life Cycle," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 66(2), pages 395-421.
    25. Zhao, Kai, 2014. "Social security and the rise in health spending," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 21-37.
    26. Zhao, Kai, 2015. "The impact of the correlation between health expenditure and survival probability on the demand for insurance," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 98-111.
    27. Alwyn Young, 1995. "The Tyranny of Numbers: Confronting the Statistical Realities of the East Asian Growth Experience," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(3), pages 641-680.
    28. Kim, Jiyun & Ko, Sukyoung & Yang, Bongmin, 2005. "The effects of patient cost sharing on ambulatory utilization in South Korea," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 293-300, June.
    29. Diaz, Antonia & Pijoan-Mas, Josep & Rios-Rull, Jose-Victor, 2003. "Precautionary savings and wealth distribution under habit formation preferences," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 1257-1291, September.
    30. Eddy van Doorslaer & Owen O'Donnell & Ravindra P. Rannan-Eliya & Aparnaa Somanathan & Shiva Raj Adhikari & Charu C. Garg & Deni Harbianto & Alejandro N. Herrin & Mohammed Nazmul Huq & Shamsia Ibragimo, 2007. "Catastrophic payments for health care in Asia," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(11), pages 1159-1184.
    31. Minchung Hsu, 2013. "Health Insurance and Precautionary Saving: A Structural Analysis," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(3), pages 511-526, July.
    32. Sandra L. Decker & Dahlia K. Remler, 2004. "How Much Might Universal Health Insurance Reduce Socioeconomic Disparities in Health? A Comparison of the US and Canada," NBER Working Papers 10715, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    33. Tauchen, George, 1986. "Statistical Properties of Generalized Method-of-Moments Estimators of Structural Parameters Obtained from Financial Market Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 4(4), pages 397-416, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Donou-Adonsou, Ficawoyi, 2022. "The effects of health conditions on financial sector development," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    2. Rotileanu Adina & Onişor Lucian-Florin, 2021. "Private health insurance customer satisfaction. A consumer behavior exploratory study based on structural equation modeling," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 15(1), pages 650-663, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Reona Hagiwara, 2022. "Welfare Effects of Health Insurance Reform: The Role of Elastic Medical Demand," IMES Discussion Paper Series 22-E-05, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan.
    2. Jung, Juergen & Tran, Chung, 2022. "Social health insurance: A quantitative exploration," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    3. Elena Capatina, 2012. "Life Cycle Effects of Health Risk," Working Papers 201216, ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR), Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales.
    4. Mariacristina De Nardi & Eric French & John Bailey Jones, 2016. "Savings After Retirement: A Survey," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 177-204, October.
    5. Jung, Juergen & Tran, Chung & Chambers, Matthew, 2017. "Aging and health financing in the U.S.: A general equilibrium analysis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 428-462.
    6. Kitao, Sagiri, 2014. "A life-cycle model of unemployment and disability insurance," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 1-18.
    7. Halliday, Timothy J. & He, Hui & Ning, Lei & Zhang, Hao, 2019. "Health Investment Over The Life-Cycle," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 178-215, January.
    8. Juergen Jung & Chung Tran, 2008. "The Macroeconomics of Health Savings Accounts," CAEPR Working Papers 2007-023, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Department of Economics, Indiana University Bloomington.
    9. Svetlana Pashchenko & Ponpoje Porapakkarm, 2016. "Cross-Subsidization in Employer-Based Health Insurance and the Effects of Tax Subsidy Reform," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 69(3), pages 583-612, September.
    10. Svetlana Pashchenko & Ponpoje Porapakkarm, 2013. "Quantitative Analysis of Health Insurance Reform: Separating Regulation from Redistribution," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(3), pages 383-404, July.
    11. Pashchenko, Svetlana & Porapakkarm, Ponpoje, 2010. "Quantitative Analysis of Health Insurance Reform: Separating Community Rating from Income Redistribution," MPRA Paper 26158, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Zhao, Kai, 2017. "Social insurance, private health insurance and individual welfare," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 102-117.
    13. FUKAI Taiyo & ICHIMURA Hidehiko & KANAZAWA Kyogo, 2018. "Quantifying Health Shocks over the Life Cycle," Discussion papers 18014, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    14. Campanale Claudio, 2018. "Luxury consumption, precautionary savings and wealth inequality," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 1-15, January.
    15. Amitabh Chandra & Courtney Coile & Corina Mommaerts, 2023. "What Can Economics Say about Alzheimer's Disease?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(2), pages 428-470, June.
    16. Mariacristina De Nardi & Giulio Fella, 2017. "Saving and Wealth Inequality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 26, pages 280-300, October.
    17. Patryk Babiarz & Richard Widdows & Tansel Yilmazer, 2013. "Borrowing To Cope With Adverse Health Events: Liquidity Constraints, Insurance Coverage, And Unsecured Debt," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(10), pages 1177-1198, October.
    18. Clark, Robert L. & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2014. "How does retiree health insurance influence public sector employee saving?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 109-118.
    19. Juergen Jung & Chung Tran, 2016. "Market Inefficiency, Insurance Mandate and Welfare: U.S. Health Care Reform 2010," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 20, pages 132-159, April.
    20. Minchung Hsu, 2013. "Health Insurance and Precautionary Saving: A Structural Analysis," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(3), pages 511-526, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public health insurance; Health risks; Catastrophic medical expenditures; Precautionary saving; South Korea;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D52 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Incomplete Markets
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:91:y:2020:i:c:p:233-246. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.