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End-of-life healthcare expenditure: Testing economic explanations using a discrete choice experiment

Barbara Fischer, Harry Telser and Peter Zweifel

Journal of Health Economics, 2018, vol. 60, issue C, 30-38

Abstract: Healthcare expenditure (HCE) spent during an individual’s last year of life accounts for a high share of lifetime HCE. This finding is puzzling because an investment in health is unlikely to have a sufficiently long payback period. However, Becker et al. (2007) and Philipson et al. (2010) have advanced a theory designed to explain high willingness to pay (WTP) for an extension of life close to its end. Their testable implications are complemented by the concept of ‘pain of risk bearing’ introduced by Eeckhoudt and Schlesinger (2006). They are tested using a discrete choice experiment performed in 2014, involving 1,529 Swiss adults. An individual setting where the price attribute is substantial out-of-pocket payment for a novel drug for treatment of terminal cancer is distinguished from a societal one, where it is an increase in contributions to social health insurance. Most of the economic predictions receive empirical support.

Keywords: End-of-life healthcare expenditure; Terminal cancer; Societal willingness to pay; Health insurance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C83 D12 D64 I13 J14 J17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:60:y:2018:i:c:p:30-38

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2018.06.001

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Journal of Health Economics is currently edited by J. P. Newhouse, A. J. Culyer, R. Frank, K. Claxton and T. McGuire

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