The impact of copayments on mental healthcare utilization: a natural experiment

Timo R. Lambregts () and René C. J. A. Vliet
Additional contact information
Timo R. Lambregts: Erasmus University Rotterdam
René C. J. A. Vliet: Erasmus University Rotterdam

The European Journal of Health Economics, 2018, vol. 19, issue 6, No 2, 775-784

Abstract: Abstract Empirical evidence suggests that people are fairly sensitive to cost sharing arrangements in ambulatory mental healthcare. However, pure cost sharing effects are typically hard to measure due to the presence of adverse selection effects. In this paper, we examine the impact of cost sharing on mental healthcare utilization in the context of mandatory health insurance where adverse selection is absent. Using a large proprietary dataset of a Dutch private health insurer, we examine to what extent a new copayment scheme for adult mental healthcare changed healthcare utilization. We exploit the fact that non-adults are exempted from copayments. First, we compare changes in utilization among adults and non-adults using t tests and a difference-in-difference analysis. Second, we highlight differential changes in mental healthcare utilization by treatment (duration and type of mental illness) and individual characteristics (gender and socioeconomic status). Third, we evaluate to what extent anticipatory behavior occurred pending the introduction and subsequent repeal of the new copayment scheme. Our results show a strong and significant (p

Keywords: Health insurance; Cost sharing; Copayments; Healthcare utilization; Mental healthcare; Natural experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 I13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10198-017-0921-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:eujhec:v:19:y:2018:i:6:d:10.1007_s10198-017-0921-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10198/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10198-017-0921-7

Access Statistics for this article

The European Journal of Health Economics is currently edited by J.-M.G.v.d. Schulenburg

More articles in The European Journal of Health Economics from Springer, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().