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Effects of primary care cost-sharing among young adults: varying impact across income groups and gender.
- Source :
-
The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care [Eur J Health Econ] 2019 Nov; Vol. 20 (8), pp. 1271-1280. Date of Electronic Publication: 2019 Aug 10. - Publication Year :
- 2019
-
Abstract
- We estimate the price sensitivity in health care among adolescents and young adults, and assess how it varies across income groups and gender, using a regression discontinuity design. We use the age differential cost-sharing in Swedish primary care as our identification strategy. At the 20th birthday, the copayment increases from €0 to approx. €10 per primary care physician visit and close to this threshold the copayment faced by each person is distributed almost as good as if randomized. The analysis is performed using high-quality health care and economic register data of 73,000 individuals aged 18-22. Our results show that the copayment decreases the average number of visits by 7%. Among women visits are reduced by 9%, for low-income individuals by 11%, and for low-income women by 14%. In conclusion, modest copayments have significant utilization effects, and even in a policy context with relatively low income inequalities, the effect is substantially larger in low-income groups and among women.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1618-7601
- Volume :
- 20
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 31401700
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-019-01095-6