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The Demand for Private Health Insurance: Do Waiting Lists Matter?” – Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Meliyanni Johar

    (University of Technology Sydney)

  • Glenn Jones

    (University of Technology Sydney)

  • Michael P. Keane

    (Nuffield College and Department of Economics, University of Oxford)

  • Elizabeth Savage

    (University of Technology Sydney)

  • Olena Stavrunova

    (University of Technology Sydney)

Abstract

Besley, Hall and Preston (JPubEc, 1999) investigate how waiting for medical treatment in public hospitals influences the decision to buy private health insurance, which covers faster private treatment. They find sizable positive impacts which have subsequently been influential on waiting lists management policies. This paper re-examines this result, in particular the sensitivity to the use of waiting lists as a proxy for waiting times. It is found that waiting lists do not predict private health insurance demand, and that the impact of waiting time in motivating the purchase of insurance has been overstated.

Suggested Citation

  • Meliyanni Johar & Glenn Jones & Michael P. Keane & Elizabeth Savage & Olena Stavrunova, 2013. "The Demand for Private Health Insurance: Do Waiting Lists Matter?” – Revisited," Economics Papers 2013-W09, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:nuf:econwp:1309
    as

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    File URL: http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/economics/papers/2013/Besley_2013.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luigi Siciliani & Jeremy Hurst, 2003. "Explaining Waiting Times Variations for Elective Surgery Across OECD Countries," OECD Health Working Papers 7, OECD Publishing.
    2. Johannesson, Magnus & Johansson, Per-Olov & Soderqvist, Tore, 1998. "Time spent on waiting lists for medical care: an insurance approach," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 627-644, October.
    3. Carol Propper, 1995. "The Disutility of Time Spent on the United Kingdom's National Health Service Waiting Lists," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 30(4), pages 677-700.
    4. Joan Costa-Font & Montserrat Font-Vilalta, 2004. "Preference for National Health Service Use and the Demand for Private Health Insurance in Spain," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 29(4), pages 705-718, October.
    5. Francesca Colombo & Nicole Tapay, 2004. "Private Health Insurance in Ireland: A Case Study," OECD Health Working Papers 10, OECD Publishing.
    6. Besley, Timothy & Hall, John & Preston, Ian, 1999. "The demand for private health insurance: do waiting lists matter?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 155-181, May.
    7. Neil J. Buckley & Katherine Cuff & Jeremiah Hurley & Logan McLeod & Robert Nuscheler & David Cameron, 2012. "Willingness-to-pay for parallel private health insurance: evidence from a laboratory experiment," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 45(1), pages 137-166, February.
    8. Cullis, John G. & Jones, Philip R. & Propper, Carol, 2000. "Waiting lists and medical treatment: Analysis and policies," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 23, pages 1201-1249, Elsevier.
    9. Mireia Jofre-Bonet, 2000. "Public health care and private insurance demand: The waiting time as a link," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 51-71, January.
    10. Luigi Siciliani, 2008. "A note on the dynamic interaction between waiting times and waiting lists," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(5), pages 639-647, May.
    11. Joan Costa & Jaume Garcia, 2003. "Demand for private health insurance: how important is the quality gap?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(7), pages 587-599, July.
    12. Meliyanni Johar & Glenn Jones & Michael Keane & Elizabeth Savage & Olena Stavrunova, 2010. "Waiting times and the decision to buy private health insurance. CHERE Working Paper 2010/9," Working Papers 2010/9, CHERE, University of Technology, Sydney.
    13. Colm Harmon & Brian Nolan, 2001. "Health insurance and health services utilization in Ireland," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(2), pages 135-145, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Karlsson, Martin & Klohn, Florian & Rickayzen, Ben, 2018. "The role of heterogeneous parameters for the detection of selection in insurance contracts," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 110-121.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    health insurance; waiting time; waiting lists;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private

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