Can the Health Insurance Reforms stop an increase in medical costs of middle- and old-aged persons in Japan?

Tamie Matsuura and Masaru Sasaki ()
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Tamie Matsuura: NLI Research Institute

No 10-13, Discussion Papers in Economics and Business from Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics

Abstract: Using two-period panel data from the Nippon Life Insurance Research Institute, this paper tests the hypothesis that an increase in the self-pay ratio of medical expenditures associated with the Japanese health insurance reforms of April 2003 reduced individual medical costs. We find that the increase in the self-pay ratio of medical expenditures has a trivial effect on household medical expenses, implying that a decrease in the quantity demanded for medical services offsets the increase in medical costs. However, according to quantile regression estimates, an increase in the self-pay ratio of medical expenditures has a significantly positive effect on the share of medical costs for relatively high quantile values. This provides corroborating evidence that an increase in the self-pay ratio cannot cut the demand for medical services relatively more for those bearing a higher share of medical costs in household expenditure. An additional finding is that medical services are a necessity good, particularly for those with a relatively high share of medical costs in household expenditure.

Keywords: health insurance; medical costs; Engle curve; middle- and old-aged persons; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2010-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-hea and nep-ias
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osk:wpaper:1013

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