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The medical assistance system and inpatient health care provision: Empirical evidence from short-term hospitalizations in Japan
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Vol 13, Iss 10, p e0204798 (2018)
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science (PLOS), 2018.
-
Abstract
- This paper uses two nationally representative sets of medical claims data from medical assistance and universal public health insurance systems to examine how medical assistance system assignment affects short-term inpatient health care provision. In Japan, the medical assistance system, which is part of a public assistance system, provides medical care services for its beneficiaries without imposing any financial burdens, such as copayments or advance premium payments. These circumstances can lead to inpatient costs, as physicians may provide more treatments because there is a financial incentive. Because the assignment of public assistance in Japan is not random but is subject to means testing by the local government, I employ the instrumental variable model to control the potential correlation. I find that medical expenditure is significantly higher for medical assistance patients than for universal public health insurance patients, with an arc elasticity of approximately 0.20. This elasticity is slightly greater than that found for inpatient care in the randomized RAND Health Insurance Experiment and recent empirical studies on low-income populations. In addition, the elasticities for patients who receive medication, treatment and surgery are greater.
- Subjects :
- Male
Medical Doctors
Economics
Health Care Providers
lcsh:Medicine
Social Sciences
Geographical Locations
Governments
Empirical research
Japan
Health care
Medicine and Health Sciences
Public and Occupational Health
Medical Personnel
050207 economics
lcsh:Science
media_common
Multidisciplinary
030503 health policy & services
05 social sciences
Middle Aged
Socioeconomic Aspects of Health
Hospitalization
Professions
Incentive
Arc elasticity
Female
0305 other medical science
Research Article
medicine.medical_specialty
Asia
Patients
media_common.quotation_subject
Health Personnel
Political Science
Local Governments
03 medical and health sciences
Health Economics
Physicians
0502 economics and business
medicine
Humans
Poverty
Inpatients
Health economics
Insurance, Health
Medical Assistance
Inpatient care
business.industry
lcsh:R
Payment
Health Care
Family medicine
Local government
People and Places
lcsh:Q
Population Groupings
Health Expenditures
business
Finance
Health Insurance
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 13
- Issue :
- 10
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLOS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e6e3c713208b74d627975a3ecf3dea27