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Health care demand elasticities by type of service

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  • Ellis, Randall P.
  • Martins, Bruno
  • Zhu, Wenjia

Abstract

We estimate within-year price elasticities of demand for detailed health care services using an instrumental variable strategy, in which individual monthly cost shares are instrumented by employer-year-plan-month average cost shares. A specification using backward myopic prices gives more plausible and stable results than using forward myopic prices. Using 171 million person-months spanning 73 employers from 2008 to 2014, we estimate that the overall demand elasticity by backward myopic consumers is −0.44, with higher elasticities of demand for pharmaceuticals (−0.44), specialists visits (−0.32), MRIs (−0.29) and mental health/substance abuse (−0.26), and lower elasticities for prevention visits (−0.02) and emergency rooms (−0.04). Demand response is lower for children, in larger firms, among hourly waged employees, and for sicker people. Overall the method appears promising for estimating elasticities for highly disaggregated services although the approach does not work well on services that are very expensive or persistent.

Suggested Citation

  • Ellis, Randall P. & Martins, Bruno & Zhu, Wenjia, 2017. "Health care demand elasticities by type of service," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 232-243.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:55:y:2017:i:c:p:232-243
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.07.007
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Elasticity; Cost sharing; High deductible health plans; Dynamic demand for health care; Myopic expectations;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

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