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Patient Cost Sharing and Healthcare Utilization in Early Childhood: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

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Abstract

This paper exploits longitudinal insurance claims data and a cost-sharing subsidy that has exempted copayment and coinsurance of healthcare services for children under the age of 3 in Taiwan. We use a regression discontinuity design to estimate its effect on children’s healthcare utilization. Our results show that cost-sharing subsidy significantly increases the utilization of outpatient care, especially low-value care at high-cost hospitals. In contrast, the utilization of inpatient care is price insensitive. Finally, we find that a lower level of cost-sharing has little impact on children’s health.

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  • Hsing-Wen Han & Hsien-Ming Lien & Tzu-Ting Yang, 2016. "Patient Cost Sharing and Healthcare Utilization in Early Childhood: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," IEAS Working Paper : academic research 16-A011, Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
    • Handle: RePEc:sin:wpaper:16-a011
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    Cited by:

    1. Toshiaki Iizuka & Hitoshi Shigeoka, 2018. "Free for Children? Patient Cost-sharing and Healthcare Utilization," NBER Working Papers 25306, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Miyawaki, Atsushi & Kobayashi, Yasuki, 2019. "Effect of a medical subsidy on health service utilization among schoolchildren: A community-based natural experiment in Japan," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(4), pages 353-359.
    3. Natalia Serna, 2021. "Cost sharing and the demand for health services in a regulated market," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1259-1275, June.
    4. Yizao Liu & Adam N. Rabinowitz, 2021. "The impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on retail dairy prices," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(1), pages 108-121, January.
    5. Naimi Johansson & Niklas Jakobsson & Mikael Svensson, 2019. "Effects of primary care cost-sharing among young adults: varying impact across income groups and gender," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 20(8), pages 1271-1280, November.
    6. Hirotaka Kato & Rei Goto, 2017. "Effect of reducing cost sharing for outpatient care on children’s inpatient services in Japan," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Nilsson, Anton & Paul, Alexander, 2018. "Patient cost-sharing, socioeconomic status, and children's health care utilization," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 109-124.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G22 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Insurance; Insurance Companies; Actuarial Studies
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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