 Health insurance subsidies and deductible choice: Evidence from regional variation in subsidy schemesCornel Kaufmann, Christian Schmid and Stefan Boes Journal of Health Economics, 2017, vol. 55, issue C, 262-273 Abstract: The extent to which premium subsidies can influence health insurance choices is an open question. In this paper, we explore the regional variation in subsidy schemes in Switzerland, designed as either in-kind or cash transfers, to study their impact on the choice of health insurance deductibles. Using health survey data and a difference-in-differences methodology, we find that in-kind transfers increase the likelihood of choosing a low deductible plan by approximately 4 percentage points (or 7%). Our results indicate that the response to in-kind transfers is strongest among women, middle-aged and unmarried individuals, which we explain by differences in risk-taking behavior, health status, financial constraints, health insurance and financial literacy. We discuss our results in the light of potential extra-marginal effects on the demand for health care services, which are however not supported by our data. Keywords: Health plan choice; Deductibles; Premium subsidies; In-kind transfers; Number of doctor consultations; Difference-in-differences (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:55:y:2017:i:c:p:262-273 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2017.08.002 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Health Economics is currently edited by J. P. Newhouse, A. J. Culyer, R. Frank, K. Claxton and T. McGuire More articles in Journal of Health Economics from Elsevier |
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