IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i13p6746-d580374.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Medical Cost of Cancer Care for Privately Insured Children in Chile

Author

Listed:
  • Florencia Borrescio-Higa

    (Business School, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago 7941169, Chile)

  • Nieves Valdés

    (Business School, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago 7941169, Chile)

Abstract

Medical care for children with cancer is complex and expensive, and represents a large financial burden for families around the world. We estimated the medical cost of cancer care for children under the age of 18, using administrative records of the universe of children with private insurance in Chile in the period 2007–2018, based on a sample of 3853 observations. We analyzed total cost and out-of-pocket spending by patients’ characteristics, type of cancer, and by service. Children with cancer had high annual medical costs, USD 32,287 on average for 2018. Costs were higher for the younger children in the sample. The vast majority of the cost was driven by inpatient hospital care for all types of cancer. The average total cost increased 20% in real terms over the period of study, while out-of-pocket expenses increased almost 29%. Private insurance beneficiaries faced a significant economic burden associated with medical treatment of a child with cancer. Interventions that reduce hospitalizations, as well as systemwide reforms that incorporate maximum out-of-pocket payments and prevent catastrophic expenditures, can contribute to alleviating the financial burden of childhood cancer.

Suggested Citation

  • Florencia Borrescio-Higa & Nieves Valdés, 2021. "Medical Cost of Cancer Care for Privately Insured Children in Chile," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-15, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:13:p:6746-:d:580374
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/6746/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/13/6746/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paola Friedrich & Catherine G Lam & Geetinder Kaur & Elena Itriago & Raul C Ribeiro & Ramandeep S Arora, 2016. "Determinants of Treatment Abandonment in Childhood Cancer: Results from a Global Survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, October.
    2. Paola Friedrich & Catherine G Lam & Elena Itriago & Rafael Perez & Raul C Ribeiro & Ramandeep S Arora, 2015. "Magnitude of Treatment Abandonment in Childhood Cancer," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-15, September.
    3. Villalobos Dintrans, Pablo, 2018. "Out-of-pocket health expenditure differences in Chile: Insurance performance or selection?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 184-191.
    4. Atanu Sengupta & Sanjoy De, 2020. "Review of Literature," India Studies in Business and Economics, in: Assessing Performance of Banks in India Fifty Years After Nationalization, chapter 0, pages 15-30, Springer.
    5. Wonjeong Chae & Juyeong Kim & Sohee Park & Eun-Cheol Park & Sung-In Jang, 2020. "The Financial Burden Associated with Medical Costs among Childhood Cancer Patients and Their Families Related to Their Socioeconomic Status: The Perspective of National Health Insurance Service," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-13, August.
    6. Borislava Mihaylova & Andrew Briggs & Anthony O'Hagan & Simon G. Thompson, 2011. "Review of statistical methods for analysing healthcare resources and costs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(8), pages 897-916, August.
    7. Manning, Willard G. & Mullahy, John, 2001. "Estimating log models: to transform or not to transform?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 461-494, July.
    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. Florencia Borrescio-Higa & Nieves Valdés, 2022. "The Psychosocial Burden of Families with Childhood Blood Cancer," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-14, January.

    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. Zhiyuan Hou & Ellen Van de Poel & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Baorong Yu & Qingyue Meng, 2014. "Effects Of Ncms On Access To Care And Financial Protection In China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(8), pages 917-934, August.
    2. Caballer-Tarazona, Vicent & Guadalajara-Olmeda, Natividad & Vivas-Consuelo, David, 2019. "Predicting healthcare expenditure by multimorbidity groups," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(4), pages 427-434.
    3. Toni Mora & Joan Gil & Antoni Sicras-Mainar, 2012. "The Influence of BMI, Obesity and Overweight on Medical Costs: A Panel Data Approach," Working Papers 2012-08, FEDEA.
    4. Tor Iversen & Eline Aas & Gunnar Rosenqvist & Unto Häkkinen & on behalf of the EuroHOPE study group, 2015. "Comparative Analysis of Treatment Costs in EUROHOPE," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(S2), pages 5-22, December.
    5. Jay Dev Dubey, 2021. "Measuring Income Elasticity of Healthcare-Seeking Behavior in India: A Conditional Quantile Regression Approach," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 19(4), pages 767-793, December.
    6. Kaushik Ghosh & Irina Bondarenko & Kassandra L Messer & Susan T Stewart & Trivellore Raghunathan & Allison B Rosen & David M Cutler, 2020. "Attributing medical spending to conditions: A comparison of methods," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-17, August.
    7. Kurt Lavetti & Thomas DeLeire & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2023. "How do low‐income enrollees in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces respond to cost‐sharing?," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 90(1), pages 155-183, March.
    8. Wameq A. Raza & Ellen van de Poel & Arjun Bedi & Frans Rutten, 2016. "Impact of Community‐based Health Insurance on Access and Financial Protection: Evidence from Three Randomized Control Trials in Rural India," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(6), pages 675-687, June.
    9. Galina Besstremyannaya, 2012. "Estimating income equity in social health insurance system," Working Papers w0172, New Economic School (NES).
    10. Eijkenaar, Frank & van Vliet, René C.J.A., 2017. "Improving risk equalization for individuals with persistently high costs: Experiences from the Netherlands," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(11), pages 1169-1176.
    11. Galina Besstremyannaya, 2014. "Heterogeneous effect of coinsurance rate on healthcare costs: generalized finite mixtures and matching estimators," Discussion Papers 14-014, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    12. Ziggi Ivan Santini & Hannah Becher & Maja Bæksgaard Jørgensen & Michael Davidsen & Line Nielsen & Carsten Hinrichsen & Katrine Rich Madsen & Charlotte Meilstrup & Ai Koyanagi & Sarah Stewart-Brown & D, 2021. "Economics of mental well-being: a prospective study estimating associated health care costs and sickness benefit transfers in Denmark," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(7), pages 1053-1065, September.
    13. Yonatan Dinku & David Fielding & Murat Genç, 2018. "Health shocks and child time allocation decisions by households: evidence from Ethiopia," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-23, December.
    14. Alexandre Vimont & Henri Leleu & Isabelle Durand-Zaleski, 2022. "Machine learning versus regression modelling in predicting individual healthcare costs from a representative sample of the nationwide claims database in France," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(2), pages 211-223, March.
    15. Besstremyannaya, Galina, 2017. "Measuring income equity in the demand for healthcare with finite mixture models," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 46, pages 5-29.
    16. Santini, Ziggi Ivan & Nielsen, Line & Hinrichsen, Carsten & Nelausen, Malene Kubstrup & Meilstrup, Charlotte & Koyanagi, Ai & McDaid, David & Lyubomirsky, Sonja & Vanderweele, Tyler J. & Koushede, Vib, 2021. "Mental health economics: a prospective study on psychological flourishing and associations with healthcare costs and sickness benefit transfers in Denmark," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112166, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Arjun S. Bedi & Sparrow, R.A., 2014. "Sickness and death," ISS Working Papers - General Series 51366, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    18. Fong, Joelle H., 2020. "Taking control: Active investment choice in Singapore’s national defined contribution scheme," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    19. Toni Mora & Joan Gil & Antoni Sicras-Mainar, 2012. "The Influence of BMI, Obesity and Overweight on Medical Costs: A Panel Data Approach," Working Papers 2012-08, FEDEA.
    20. Yi Yao & Joan Schmit & Julie Shi, 2019. "Promoting sustainability for micro health insurance: a risk-adjusted subsidy approach for maternal healthcare service," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 44(3), pages 382-409, July.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:13:p:6746-:d:580374. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.