Uterus at a Price: Disability Insurance and Hysterectomy

Elliott Fan (), Hsienming Lien () and Ching-to Ma
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Hsienming Lien: Department of Public Finance, National Chengchi University

No WP2018-001, Boston University - Department of Economics - Working Papers Series from Boston University - Department of Economics

Abstract: Taiwanese Labor, Government Employee, and Farmer Insurance programs provide 5-6 months of salary to enrollees who undergo hysterectomy or oophorectomy before their 45th birthday. These programs result in more and earlier treatments, referred as, respectively, inducement and timing effects. Difference-in-difference and nonparametric methods are used to estimate these effects on surgery hazards between 1997 and 2011. For Government Employee and Labor Insurance, inducement is 11-12% of all hysterectomies, and timing 20% of inducement. For oophorectomy, both effects are insignificant. Induced hysterectomies increase benefit payments and surgical costs, at about the cost of a mammogram and 5 pap smears per enrollee.

Keywords: disability insurance; moral hazard; hysterectomy; oophorectomy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I00 I10 I12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 57 pages
Date: 2017-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ias
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Journal Article: Uterus at a price: Disability insurance and hysterectomy (2019)
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