IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v26y2017i10p1234-1248.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Heterogeneous Effects of a Nonlinear Price Schedule for Outpatient Care

Author

Listed:
  • Helmut Farbmacher
  • Peter Ihle
  • Ingrid Schubert
  • Joachim Winter
  • Amelie Wuppermann

Abstract

Nonlinear price schedules generally have heterogeneous effects on health‐care demand. We develop and apply a finite mixture bivariate probit model to analyze whether there are heterogeneous reactions to the introduction of a nonlinear price schedule in the German statutory health insurance system. In administrative insurance claims data from the largest German health insurance plan, we find that some individuals strongly react to the new price schedule while a second group of individuals does not react. Post‐estimation analyses reveal that the group of the individuals who do not react to the reform includes the relatively sick. These results are in line with forward‐looking behavior: Individuals who are already sick expect that they will hit the kink in the price schedule and thus are less sensitive to the co‐payment. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Helmut Farbmacher & Peter Ihle & Ingrid Schubert & Joachim Winter & Amelie Wuppermann, 2017. "Heterogeneous Effects of a Nonlinear Price Schedule for Outpatient Care," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(10), pages 1234-1248, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:26:y:2017:i:10:p:1234-1248
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.3395
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3395
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.3395?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schreyögg, Jonas & Grabka, Markus M., 2010. "Copayments for Ambulatory Care in Germany: A Natural Experiment Using a Difference-in-Difference Approach," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 11(3), pages 331-341.
    2. Marianne P. Bitler & Jonah B. Gelbach & Hilary W. Hoynes, 2006. "What Mean Impacts Miss: Distributional Effects of Welfare Reform Experiments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 988-1012, September.
    3. Rainer Winkelmann, 2014. "An Empirical Model of Health Care Demand under Non-linear Pricing," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 688, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Vincenzo Atella & Francesco Brindisi & Partha Deb & Furio C. Rosati, 2004. "Determinants of access to physician services in Italy: a latent class seemingly unrelated probit approach," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(7), pages 657-668, July.
    5. Rainer Winkelmann, 2004. "Health care reform and the number of doctor visits-an econometric analysis," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 455-472.
    6. Augurzky, Boris & Bauer, Thomas K. & Schaffner, Sandra, 2006. "Copayments in the German Health System: Does It Work?," IZA Discussion Papers 2290, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Gilles Celeux & Gilda Soromenho, 1996. "An entropy criterion for assessing the number of clusters in a mixture model," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 13(2), pages 195-212, September.
    8. Charles F. Manski, 2004. "Measuring Expectations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(5), pages 1329-1376, September.
    9. Paul Contoyannis & Jeremiah Hurley & Paul Grootendorst & Sung‐Hee Jeon & Robyn Tamblyn, 2005. "Estimating the price elasticity of expenditure for prescription drugs in the presence of non‐linear price schedules: an illustration from Quebec, Canada," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(9), pages 909-923, September.
    10. Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein & Paul Schrimpf, 2015. "The Response of Drug Expenditure to Nonlinear Contract Design: Evidence from Medicare Part D," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 841-899.
    11. Deb, Partha & Trivedi, Pravin K., 2002. "The structure of demand for health care: latent class versus two-part models," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 601-625, July.
    12. Randall P. Ellis, 1986. "Rational Behavior in the Presence of Coverage Ceilings and Deductibles," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(2), pages 158-175, Summer.
    13. Djebbari, Habiba & Smith, Jeffrey, 2008. "Heterogeneous impacts in PROGRESA," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1-2), pages 64-80, July.
    14. Helmut Farbmacher & Joachim Winter, 2013. "Per‐Period Co‐Payments And The Demand For Health Care: Evidence From Survey And Claims Data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(9), pages 1111-1123, September.
    15. Deb, Partha & Gallo, William T. & Ayyagari, Padmaja & Fletcher, Jason M. & Sindelar, Jody L., 2011. "The effect of job loss on overweight and drinking," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 317-327, March.
    16. Cameron,A. Colin & Trivedi,Pravin K., 2005. "Microeconometrics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521848053, October.
    17. Aviva Aron-Dine & Liran Einav & Amy Finkelstein & Mark Cullen, 2012. "Moral hazard in health insurance: How important is forward looking behavior?," Discussion Papers 11-007, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    18. Keeler, Emmett B & Newhouse, Joseph P & Phelps, C E, 1977. "Deductibles and the Demand for Medical Care Services: The Theory of a Consumer Facing a Variable Price Schedule under Uncertainty," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 45(3), pages 641-655, April.
    19. Winkelmann, Rainer, 2006. "Reforming health care: Evidence from quantile regressions for counts," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 131-145, January.
    20. Teresa Bago d'Uva, 2006. "Latent class models for utilisation of health care," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(4), pages 329-343, April.
    21. Padmaja Ayyagari & Partha Deb & Jason Fletcher & William Gallo & Jody L. Sindelar, 2013. "Understanding Heterogeneity In Price Elasticities In The Demand For Alcohol For Older Individuals," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(1), pages 89-105, January.
    22. Deb, Partha & Trivedi, Pravin K, 1997. "Demand for Medical Care by the Elderly: A Finite Mixture Approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(3), pages 313-336, May-June.
    23. Helmut Farbmacher & Peter Ihle & Ingrid Schubert & Joachim Winter & Amelie Wuppermann, 2017. "Heterogeneous Effects of a Nonlinear Price Schedule for Outpatient Care," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(10), pages 1234-1248, October.
    24. Augurzky, Boris & Bauer, Thomas K. & Schaffner, Sandra, 2006. "Copayments in the German Health System - Do They Work?," RWI Discussion Papers 43, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung.
    25. Chad D. Meyerhoefer & Samuel H. Zuvekas, 2010. "New estimates of the demand for physical and mental health treatment," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(3), pages 297-315, March.
    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. Michael Gerfin & Boris Kaiser & Christian Schmid, 2015. "Healthcare Demand in the Presence of Discrete Price Changes," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(9), pages 1164-1177, September.
    2. Klein, Tobias & Salm, Martin & Upadhyay, Suraj, 2020. "The Response to Dynamic Incentives in Insurance Contracts with a Deductible: Evidence from a Differences-in-Regression-Disconti," CEPR Discussion Papers 14552, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Johannes S. Kunz & Rainer Winkelmann, 2017. "An Econometric Model of Healthcare Demand With Nonlinear Pricing," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(6), pages 691-702, June.
    4. Giampiero Marra & Matteo Fasiolo & Rosalba Radice & Rainer Winkelmann, 2023. "A flexible copula regression model with Bernoulli and Tweedie margins for estimating the effect of spending on mental health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 1305-1322, June.
    5. Stefanie Thönnes, 2019. "Ex-post moral hazard in the health insurance market: empirical evidence from German data," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 20(9), pages 1317-1333, December.
    6. Helmut Farbmacher & Peter Ihle & Ingrid Schubert & Joachim Winter & Amelie Wuppermann, 2017. "Heterogeneous Effects of a Nonlinear Price Schedule for Outpatient Care," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(10), pages 1234-1248, October.
    7. Sá, Luís & Straume, Odd Rune, 2021. "Quality provision in hospital markets with demand inertia: The role of patient expectations," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    8. Johansson, Naimi & de New, Sonja C. & Kunz, Johannes S. & Petrie, Dennis & Svensson, Mikael, 2023. "Reductions in out-of-pocket prices and forward-looking moral hazard in health care demand," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    9. Klein, Tobias J. & Salm, Martin & Upadhyay, Suraj, 2022. "The response to dynamic incentives in insurance contracts with a deductible: Evidence from a differences-in-regression-discontinuities design," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    10. Galina Besstremyannaya, 2012. "Heterogeneous effect of coinsurance rate on the demand for health care: a finite mixture approach," Working Papers w0163, New Economic School (NES).
    11. Rainer Winkelmann, 2014. "An Empirical Model of Health Care Demand under Non-linear Pricing," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 688, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    12. 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.
    13. Haaga, Tapio & Böckerman, Petri & Kortelainen, Mika & Tukiainen, Janne, 2024. "Effects of nurse visit copayment on primary care use: Do low-income households pay the price?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    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. Wuppermann, Amelie Catherine, 2011. "Empirical Essays in Health and Education Economics," Munich Dissertations in Economics 13187, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    2. 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.
    3. Helmut Farbmacher & Joachim Winter, 2013. "Per‐Period Co‐Payments And The Demand For Health Care: Evidence From Survey And Claims Data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(9), pages 1111-1123, September.
    4. Teresa Bago d'Uva, 2006. "Latent class models for utilisation of health care," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(4), pages 329-343, April.
    5. Johannes S. Kunz & Rainer Winkelmann, 2017. "An Econometric Model of Healthcare Demand With Nonlinear Pricing," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(6), pages 691-702, June.
    6. Hendrik Schmitz, 2012. "More health care utilization with more insurance coverage? Evidence from a latent class model with German data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(34), pages 4455-4468, December.
    7. Moreira S & Pita Barros P, 2009. "Double coverage and demand for health care: Evidence from quantile regression," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 09/21, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    8. Rainer Winkelmann, 2014. "An Empirical Model of Health Care Demand under Non-linear Pricing," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 688, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    9. Óscar Lourenço & Carlota Quintal & Pedro Lopes Ferreira & Pedro Pita Barros, 2007. "A equidade na utilização de cuidados de saúde em Portugal: Uma avaliação baseada em modelos de contagem," Notas Económicas, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, issue 25, pages 6-26, June.
    10. Helmut Farbmacher; & Joachim Winter, 2012. "Non-linear price schedules, demand for health care and response behavior," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 12/15, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    11. Bago d'Uva, Teresa & Jones, Andrew M. & van Doorslaer, Eddy, 2009. "Measurement of horizontal inequity in health care utilisation using European panel data," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 280-289, March.
    12. José Murteira & Óscar Lourenço, 2011. "Health care utilization and self-assessed health: specification of bivariate models using copulas," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 447-472, October.
    13. Kyoungrae Jung & Roger Feldman & A. McBean, 2014. "Demand for prescription drugs under non-linear pricing in Medicare Part D," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 19-40, March.
    14. Majo, M.C., 2010. "A microeconometric analysis of health care utilization in Europe," Other publications TiSEM 1cf5fd2f-8146-4ef8-8eb5-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    15. Erik Schokkaert & Tom Van Ourti & Diana De Graeve & Ann Lecluyse & Carine Van de Voorde, 2010. "Supplemental health insurance and equality of access in Belgium," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 377-395, April.
    16. Klein, Tobias & Salm, Martin & Upadhyay, Suraj, 2020. "The Response to Dynamic Incentives in Insurance Contracts with a Deductible: Evidence from a Differences-in-Regression-Disconti," CEPR Discussion Papers 14552, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Klein, Tobias J. & Salm, Martin & Upadhyay, Suraj, 2022. "The response to dynamic incentives in insurance contracts with a deductible: Evidence from a differences-in-regression-discontinuities design," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    18. Jones, A.M, 2010. "Models For Health Care," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 10/01, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    19. Majo, M.C. & van Soest, A.H.O., 2011. "The Fixed-Effects Zero-Inflated Poisson Model with an Application to Health Care Utilization," Other publications TiSEM 68cf0f9b-fc68-4017-97a9-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    20. Bago d'Uva, Teresa & Jones, Andrew M., 2009. "Health care utilisation in Europe: New evidence from the ECHP," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 265-279, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C35 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models; Discrete Regressors; Proportions
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:hlthec:v:26:y:2017:i:10:p:1234-1248. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    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.