 Patient cost-sharing, socioeconomic status, and children's health care utilizationAnton Nilsson and Alexander Paul Journal of Health Economics, 2018, vol. 59, issue C, 109-124 Abstract: This paper estimates the effect of cost-sharing on the demand for children's and adolescents’ use of medical care. We use a large population-wide registry dataset including detailed information on contacts with the health care system as well as family income. Two different estimation strategies are used: regression discontinuity design exploiting age thresholds above which fees are charged, and difference-in-differences models exploiting policy changes. We also estimate combined regression discontinuity difference-in-differences models that take into account discontinuities around age thresholds caused by factors other than cost-sharing. We find that when care is free of charge, individuals increase their number of doctor visits by 5–10%. Effects are similar in middle childhood and adolescence, and are driven by those from low-income families. The differences across income groups cannot be explained by other factors that correlate with income, such as maternal education. Keywords: Cost-sharing; Health care utilization; Children; Income-health gradient; Difference-in-differences; Regression discontinuity (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:59:y:2018:i:c:p:109-124 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.03.006 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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