Preferences for Health Insurance in Germany and the Netherlands � A Tale of Two Countries

Peter Zweifel (pzweifel@soi.uzh.ch), Karolin Leukert (karolin.leukert@polynomics.ch) and Stephanie Berner (stephanie.berner@polynomics.ch)
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Peter Zweifel: Socioeconomic Institute, University of Zurich
Karolin Leukert: Polynomics, Olten
Stephanie Berner: Polynomics, Olten

No 1002, SOI - Working Papers from Socioeconomic Institute - University of Zurich

Abstract: This contribution contains an international comparison of preferences. Using two Discrete Choice Experiments (DCE), it measures willingness to pay for health insurance attributes in Germany and the Netherlands. Since the Dutch DCE was carried out right after the 2006 health reform, which made citizens explicitly choose a health insurance contract, two research questions naturally arise. First, are the preferences with regard to contract attributes (such as Managed-Care-type restrictions of physician choice) similar between the two countries? Second, was the information campaign launched by the Dutch government in the context of the reform effective in the sense of reducing status quo bias? Based on random-effects Probit estimates, these two questions can be answered as follows. First, while much the same attributes have positive and negative willingness to pay values in the two countries, their magnitudes differ, pointing to differences in preference structure. Second, status quo bias in the Netherlands is one-half of the German value, suggesting that Dutch consumers were indeed made to bear the cost of decision making associated with choice of a health insurance contract.

Keywords: preference measurement; willingness to pay; health insurance; discrete-choice experiments; health reform; Germany; Netherlands (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C25 D12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2010-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-ias
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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