Optimal Waits and Charges in Health Insurance

Hugh Gravelle () and Luigi Siciliani ()

Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, University of York

Abstract: Waiting times are commonly used in the health sector to ration demand. We show that when money charges (coinsurance rates) are optimally set and there are no redistributional considerations, it is never optimal to have a positive waiting time if the marginal cost of waiting is higher for patients with greater benefits from health care. Although waiting time provides an additional instrument to control demand it does not mitigate the conflict between efficient risk bearing and efficient consumption of health care.

Keywords: Waiting times; rationing; optimal pricing; insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H21 H42 I11 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ias
Date: 2007-01
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