Downloads
lopez_vera.pdf
PDF | 243.57 KB
<p><p>This paper develops an empirical strategy to estimate whether subsidies to private medical insurance are self-financing in countries where public and private insurance coexist and the latter covers the same treatments as the former. We construct a simulation routine based on a micro-econometric discrete choice model that allows us to evaluate the impact of premium changes on the utilization of outpatient and inpatient health care services. As an application, we estimate the budgetary effects of scrapping a subsidy from the purchase of individual private policies, using micro-data from Catalonia. Our results suggest that the subsidy is not self-financing. This result is driven by the fact that private medical insurance holders make concurrent use of public and private services, and by the price inelasticity of the demand for private policies.</p></p>
Authors
Marcos Vera-Hernandez
Research Fellow University College London
Marcos is a Research Fellow at IFS, an Affiliate at the Rural Education Action Program and a Professor of Economics at the University College London.
Ángel López Nicolás
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2008.06.006
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- ISSN
- 0187-6296
- JEL
- H24, I18, C25
- Issue
- September 2008
Suggested citation
More from IFS
Understand this issue
Public investment: what you need to know
explainer
Everything you wanted to know about UK public investment but were too afraid to ask – including analysis of Labour and Conservative plans.
25 April 2024
The £600 billion problem awaiting the next government
podcast
We speak to David Gauke and Giles Wilkes, two experts who have been at the heart of the spending review process.
25 April 2024
If you can’t see it, you can’t be it: role models influence female junior doctors’ choice of medical specialty
comment
Working alongside a greater share of senior women specialists during an early-career placement influences junior women’s own specialty choice.
24 April 2024
Policy analysis
The past and future of UK health spending
report
How has health spending changed over the past seven decades? How does the UK compare to other countries? What is the outlook for health spending?
14 May 2024
NHS spending has risen less quickly than was planned at the last election, despite the pandemic and record waiting lists
press release
Despite a pandemic, record waiting lists and growing rates of ill health, real-terms health spending has risen less quickly than was planned.
14 May 2024
Recent trends in and the outlook for health-related benefits
report
Recipients of and spending on health-related benefits have risen rapidly since the start of the pandemic, posing a serious challenge for policymakers.
19 April 2024
Academic research
The role of hospital networks in individual mortality
working paper
We estimate that broad-network insurers reduce mortality because they steer patients to higher-quality providers and reduce hospital congestion.
13 May 2024
6th World Bank/IFS/ODI Public Finance Conference | Driving Progress: Public Finance and Structural Transformation
conference
26 September 2024
We invite researchers from both academic and policy institutions to submit a paper or an extended abstract of two or more pages by April.
Forced displacement, mental health, and child development: Evidence from Rohingya refugees
working paper
In this study, we conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving 3,500 Rohingya mother-child pairs in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
10 May 2024