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Determinants of health care utilization by German sickness fund members - with application to risk adjustment

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Author Info
Friedrich Breyer (University of Konstanz and DIW, Berlin)
Martin Heineck (University of Konstanz and DIW, Berlin)
Normann Lorenz (University of Konstanz and DIW, Berlin)

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Abstract

In many countries, social health insurance systems are being reformed in favor of more competition among insurers, while premiums are community rated by regulation. The implicit incentives for insurers to engage in risk selection can only be curtailed using appropriate systems of risk-adjusted equalization payments among insurers. To develop these systems, predictors of individual utilization patterns have to be identified, e.g. via regression analysis using previous utilization data. In some countries such as Germany, such data are hardly ever available. In the early nineties, a number of sickness funds participated in an experiment in which individual utilization data were collected. Our data set covers more than 70 000 members of company sickness funds over a 5-year period. We analyze socio-demographic determinants of utilization which could be used as risk adjusters in a risk equalization scheme. Our results suggest that besides age and sex, the set of risk adjusters should include income, family status and a dummy for the last year of life. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/hec.757
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Publisher Info
Article provided by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. in its journal Health Economics.

Volume (Year): 12 (2003)
Issue (Month): 5 ()
Pages: 367-376
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Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:12:y:2003:i:5:p:367-376

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Web page: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749

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  1. Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Johannesson, Magnus, 1999. "Income-Related Inequality in Life-Years and Quality-Adjusted Life-Years," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 334, Stockholm School of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Van de ven, Wynand P.M.M. & Ellis, Randall P., 2000. "Risk adjustment in competitive health plan markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 14, pages 755-845 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. van Doorslaer, Eddy & Wagstaff, Adam & Bleichrodt, Han & Calonge, Samuel & Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Gerfin, Michael & Geurts, Jose & Gross, Lorna & Hakkinen, Unto & Leu, Robert E., 1997. "Income-related inequalities in health: some international comparisons," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 93-112, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Robert Nuscheler & Thomas Knaus, 2005. "Risk selection in the German public health insurance system," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(12), pages 1253-1271. [Downloadable!]
  2. Marc Saez & Carme Saurina & Germà Coenders & Sònia González-Raya, 2006. "Use of primary health care services according to the different degrees of obesity in the Girona Health Region, Spain," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(2), pages 173-193. [Downloadable!]
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