IS THERE A ‘SECESSION OF THE WEALTHY’? PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE UPTAKE AND NATIONAL HEALTH SYSTEM SUPPORT

Joan Costa‐Font and Mireia Jofre‐Bonet
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Mireia Jofre-Bonet and Joan Costa-i-Font

Bulletin of Economic Research, 2008, vol. 60, issue 3, 265-287

Abstract: The purchase of private health insurance (PHI) as a means to partially supplement the National Health System (NHS) coverage is often regarded as a potential signal for a declining support for the NHS. Exploiting the fact that PHI is typically purchased by the most affluent, in this paper we test the so called ‘secession of the wealthy’ hypothesis whereby the likelihood of expressing ‘lack of support for the NHS’ increases with having supplementary PHI. Using empirical data from Catalonia, we draw upon an empirical strategy that circumvents an obvious simultaneity problem by estimating both a recursive bivariate probit as well as an IV probit. After controlling for insurance premium, household income and other socio‐demographic determinants, we find that the purchase of PHI reduces the propensity of individuals to support the NHS. We also find evidence that PHI is a luxury good and sensitive to fiscal incentives.

Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8586.2008.00285.x

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:bla:buecrs:v:60:y:2008:i:3:p:265-287

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0307-3378

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Bulletin of Economic Research from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().