IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fau/fauart/v60y2010i1p58-72.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Doctor-Visit Co-Payment Exemption for Children: First Look at the Data

Author

Abstract

This paper uses the abolition of children’s doctor-visit co-payments effective since April 2009 as a natural experiment to estimate the effect of those co-payments on the number of doctor visits made by children. As the policy change involved only children, we are able to use the adult part of the population as a control group in a difference-in-difference estimation. The paper approximates the number of doctor visits by consumption of prescription drugs, as visiting a doctor is the only way to obtain a prescription. Using three different pre-reform periods (January, February, and March 2009) and two post-reform periods (April and May 2009) the estimates reveal no overall effect of doctor-visit co-payments on the number of children’s doctor visits. Less convincingly and more tentatively, the estimates suggest a strategic shift of children’s doctor visits away from the last pre-reform toward the first post-reform month.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan Zápal, 2010. "Doctor-Visit Co-Payment Exemption for Children: First Look at the Data," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 60(1), pages 58-72, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:fau:fauart:v:60:y:2010:i:1:p:58-72
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://journal.fsv.cuni.cz/storage/1180_1180_str_58_72_-_zapal.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manning, Willard G, et al, 1987. "Health Insurance and the Demand for Medical Care: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 251-277, June.
    2. Rainer Winkelmann, 2004. "Co‐payments for prescription drugs and the demand for doctor visits – Evidence from a natural experiment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(11), pages 1081-1089, November.
    3. Ashenfelter, Orley C, 1978. "Estimating the Effect of Training Programs on Earnings," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 60(1), pages 47-57, February.
    4. Augurzky, Boris & Bauer, Thomas K. & Schaffner, Sandra, 2006. "Copayments in the German Health System: Does It Work?," IZA Discussion Papers 2290, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Zweifel, Peter & Manning, Willard G., 2000. "Moral hazard and consumer incentives in health care," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 8, pages 409-459, Elsevier.
    6. repec:zbw:rwidps:0043 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Augurzky, Boris & Bauer, Thomas K. & Schaffner, Sandra, 2006. "Copayments in the German Health System - Do They Work?," RWI Discussion Papers 43, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.
    8. David Hughes & Alistair McGuire, 1995. "Patient charges and the utilisation of nhs prescription medicines: Some estimates using a cointegration procedure," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 4(3), pages 213-220, May.
    9. Leibowitz, Arleen & Manning, Willard G. & Newhouse, Joseph P., 1985. "The demand for prescription drugs as a function of cost-sharing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 21(10), pages 1063-1069, January.
    10. O'Brien, Bernie, 1989. "The effect of patient charges on the utilisation of prescription medicines," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 109-132, March.
    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. Jana Votapkova & Pavlina Zilova, 2016. "The abolition of user charges and the demand for ambulatory visits: evidence from the Czech Republic," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-11, 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. Raffelhüschen, Bernd & Moog, Stefan, 2010. "Ehrbarer Staat? Die Generationenbilanz. Update 2010: Handlungsoptionen der Gesundheitspolitik," Argumente zur Marktwirtschaft und Politik 111, Stiftung Marktwirtschaft / The Market Economy Foundation, Berlin.
    2. Schmitz, Hendrik, 2013. "Practice budgets and the patient mix of physicians – The effect of a remuneration system reform on health care utilisation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1240-1249.
    3. Helmut Farbmacher; & Joachim Winter, 2012. "Non-linear price schedules, demand for health care and response behavior," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 12/15, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    4. Bakker, F. M. & van Vliet, R. C. J. A., 1995. "The introduction of deductibles for prescription drugs in a national health insurance: compulsory or voluntary?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 53-65, January.
    5. Mingming Xu & Benjamin Bittschi, 2022. "Does the abolition of copayment increase ambulatory care utilization?: a quasi-experimental study in Germany," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(8), pages 1319-1328, November.
    6. Ha Trong Nguyen & Luke B Connelly, 2017. "Cost-sharing in health insurance and its impact in a developing country: evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Working Paper series WP1702, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School.
    7. Paul Grootendorst & Mitchell Levine, 2002. "Do Drug Plans Matter? Effects of Drug Plan Eligibility on Drug Use Among the Elderly, Social Assistance Recipients and the General Population," Quantitative Studies in Economics and Population Research Reports 372, McMaster University.
    8. Marin C. Gemmill & Joan Costa‐Font & Alistair McGuire, 2007. "In search of a corrected prescription drug Elasticity estimate: a meta‐regression approach," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(6), pages 627-643, June.
    9. Perronnin, Marc, 2013. "Effet de l'assurance complémentaire santé sur les consommations médicales, entre risque moral et amélioration de l'accès aux soins," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/13659 edited by Wittwer, Jérôme.
    10. Paul Contoyannis & Jeremiah Hurley & Paul Grootendorst & Sung‐Hee Jeon & Robyn Tamblyn, 2005. "Estimating the price elasticity of expenditure for prescription drugs in the presence of non‐linear price schedules: an illustration from Quebec, Canada," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(9), pages 909-923, September.
    11. Hendrik Schmitz, 2012. "More health care utilization with more insurance coverage? Evidence from a latent class model with German data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(34), pages 4455-4468, December.
    12. Jana Votapkova & Pavlina Zilova, 2016. "The abolition of user charges and the demand for ambulatory visits: evidence from the Czech Republic," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Fiorio, Carlo V. & Siciliani, Luigi, 2010. "Co-payments and the demand for pharmaceuticals: Evidence from Italy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 835-841, July.
    14. Crea, Giovanni & Galizzi, Matteo M. & Linnosmaa, Ismo & Miraldo, Marisa, 2019. "Physician altruism and moral hazard: (no) Evidence from Finnish national prescriptions data," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 153-169.
    15. Kan, Mari & Suzuki, Wataru, 2010. "Effects of cost sharing on the demand for physician services in Japan: Evidence from a natural experiment," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 1-12, January.
    16. Andrew Street & Andrew Jones & Aya Furuta, 1997. "Cost-sharing and pharmaceutical utilisation in Russia: evidence from a household survey," Working Papers 155chedp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
    17. Astrid Kiil & Kurt Houlberg, 2014. "How does copayment for health care services affect demand, health and redistribution? A systematic review of the empirical evidence from 1990 to 2011," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(8), pages 813-828, November.
    18. Street, Andrew & Jones, Andrew & Furuta, Aya, 1999. "Cost-sharing and pharmaceutical utilisation and expenditure in Russia," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 459-472, August.
    19. Trottmann, Maria & Zweifel, Peter & Beck, Konstantin, 2012. "Supply-side and demand-side cost sharing in deregulated social health insurance: Which is more effective?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 231-242.
    20. Peter Zweifel, 2006. "Auftrag und Grenzen der Sozialen Krankenversicherung," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 7(s1), pages 5-26, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    doctor visit co-payments; children; difference-in-difference;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • 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:fau:fauart:v:60:y:2010:i:1:p:58-72. 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: Natalie Svarcova (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/icunicz.html .

    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.