The effects of patient cost‐sharing on adolescents' healthcare utilization and financial risk protection: Evidence from South Korea

Seonghoon Kim, Kanghyock Koh and Wonjun Lyou

Economic Inquiry, 2024, vol. 62, issue 3, 1009-1023

Abstract: We examine the effects of patient cost‐sharing on adolescents' healthcare utilization and out‐of‐pocket medical expenditures by exploiting the healthcare reform in South Korea that lowered the coinsurance rate for inpatient care from 20% to 5% for children under 16. We apply a difference‐in‐regression‐discontinuities design using administrative claims data. We find that the reform increased adolescents' inpatient care utilization. It also reduced out‐of‐pocket healthcare expenditures. This effect was larger among low‐income households, facilitating income redistribution. However, the lack of evidence on health improvements and household consumption spending responses suggests that generous patient cost‐sharing for adolescent healthcare may cause efficiency losses.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/ecin.13221

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:62:y:2024:i:3:p:1009-1023

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://ordering.onl ... s.aspx?ref=1465-7295

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Inquiry is currently edited by Tim Salmon

More articles in Economic Inquiry from Western Economic Association International Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().