Less social health insurance, more private supplementary insurance? Empirical evidence from Germany

Boris Augurzky () and Harald Tauchmann

Journal of Policy Modeling, 2011, vol. 33, issue 3, 470-480

Abstract: Based on individual level data from Germany, we analyze the effect of changes in the compulsory benefit package of the social health insurance on the demand for supplementary private insurance, employing a difference-in-differences approach. The focus is on the exclusion of dental prostheses from the benefit package in 1997 and its re-inclusion in 1999. Individuals born prior to 1979 serve as control group because only the young were affected by the reform. No significant effect on the demand for supplementary health insurance is found. Thus, the notion of clients making informed choices about their health insurances' coverage is not supported.

Keywords: Supplementary; private; health; insurance; Personal; responsibility; Dental; prostheses; Difference-in-differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0161-8938(10)00116-X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jpolmo:v:33:y:2011:i:3:p:470-480

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Policy Modeling is currently edited by A. M. Costa

More articles in Journal of Policy Modeling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().