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Demand for Private Health Insurance: Is there a Quality Gap?

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Author Info
Joan Costa
Jaume Garcia ()

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Abstract

Quality of care is qualified as a main determinant of the demand for voluntary private health insurance (PHI) in National Health Systems (NHS). This paper provides new evidence on the influence of the quality gap between public and private health insurance and other demand determinants in the demand for PHI in Catalonia. The demand for PHI is modelled as a demand for health care quality. Unlike previous studies, the database employed allows for the development of a link between the theoretical and the empirical model dealing with unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity issues. Results suggest that a rise in PHI quality enhances an equivalent influence in the demand for PHI as an equal reduction of NHS quality. Income and price elasticity estimates are consistent with the observed feature that PHI appears to be a luxury good and individuals tend to be relatively insensible to tax relief's and monetary co-payments in insurance contracts.

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Paper provided by Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra in its series Economics Working Papers with number 531.

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Date of creation: Feb 2001
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Handle: RePEc:upf:upfgen:531

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Related research
Keywords: Private health insurance; health care quality; insurance premium;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
G1 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Epple, Dennis & Romano, Richard E, 1996. "Public Provision of Private Goods," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(1), pages 57-84, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Hugh Gravelle & Peter C. Smith & Ana Xavier, . "Waiting Times and Waiting Lists: A Model of the Market for Elective Surgery," Discussion Papers 00/27, Department of Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
  4. Propper, Carol, 1993. "Constrained choice sets in the U.K. demand for private medical insurance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 287-307, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Martin, Stephen & Smith, Peter C., 1999. "Rationing by waiting lists: an empirical investigation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 141-164, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Iversen, Tor, 1997. "The effect of a private sector on the waiting time in a national health service," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 381-396, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Kenkel, Don, 1990. "Consumer Health Information and the Demand for Medical Care," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(4), pages 587-95, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Van de Ven, Wynand P. M. M. & Van Praag, Bernard M. S., 1981. "The demand for deductibles in private health insurance : A probit model with sample selection," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 229-252, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Diego R. Palenzuela., . "Provision of private health insurance under public insurance captivity," Working Papers 97-17, FEDEA.
  10. David M. Cutler & Jonathan Gruber, 1995. "Does Public Insurance Crowd Out Private Insurance?," NBER Working Papers 5082, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. John Hall & Ian Preston, 1998. "Public and private choice in UK health insurance," IFS Working Papers W98/19, Institute for Fiscal Studies. [Downloadable!]
  12. Besley, Timothy & Hall, John & Preston, Ian, 1998. "Private and public health insurance in the UK," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-5), pages 491-497, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Propper, Carol, 2000. "The demand for private health care in the UK," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 855-876, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Besley, Timothy & Coate, Stephen, 1991. "Public Provision of Private Goods and the Redistribution of Income," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(4), pages 979-84, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Lindsay, Cotton M & Feigenbaum, Bernard, 1984. "Rationing by Waiting Lists," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 404-17, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. 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. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  17. Nyman, John A., 1999. "The value of health insurance: the access motive," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 141-152, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Makoka, Donald & Kaluwa, Ben & Kambewa, Patrick, 2007. "The Demand for Private Health Insurance in Malawi," MPRA Paper 4974, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  2. Ángel López-Nicolás & Marcos Vera-Hernández, 2002. "Are Tax Subsidies for Private Medical Insurance Self-financing? Evidence from a Microsimulation Model for Outpatient and Inpatient Episodes," Working Papers, Research Center on Health and Economics 632, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Oct 2004. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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