Consumption of Healthcare Services in the United States: The Impact of Health Insurance

Raluca Elena Narita ()
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Raluca Elena Narita: Mays Business School, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA

JRFM, 2023, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: Over the past few decades, healthcare expenditures in the United States have increased due to a variety of different factors. Depending on their insurance plans, Americans have varying levels of health insurance coverage and may need to make co-payments or pay fully for specific health services. According to multiple studies, health insurance does appear to increase the utilization of healthcare services, except emergency services. Demographic factors such as age, citizenship, and race/ethnicity, as well as the type of health service demanded, all appear to influence the consumption of healthcare in the United States. However, many existing studies conducted in this area are not experimental or randomized, which may result in a lack of validity of the estimated relationship between insurance and healthcare utilization due to confounding variables. A new experimental study, similar to the RAND HIE study, is needed to provide insight into the current relationships between insurance and healthcare utilization, taking into consideration changes in legislation.

Keywords: health insurance; RAND HIE; cost sharing; healthcare; out-of-pocket costs; hospitalizations; emergency medicine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C E F2 F3 G (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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