Private Health Insurance and Risk Protection: Changes in Out-of-Pocket Medical Spending, 2001 and 2011

Minkyoung Yoo ()
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Minkyoung Yoo: Department of Pharmacotherapy, University of Utah, 30 S. 2000 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, U.S.A.

The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, 2014, vol. 39, issue 4, 727-748

Abstract: Changes in the cost-sharing provisions of employment-sponsored health insurance in the 2000s were designed to control U.S. health-care spending. However, such provisions may also increase the financial burden on families who need medical care and may differentially affect families according to their socioeconomic characteristics and the health status of family members. Additionally, changes in cost sharing may alter the entire shape of the out-of-pocket spending distribution. Using quantile regressions, I assess whether the distribution of out-of-pocket spending and hence the risk-protection function of private insurance has been affected by such changes. The empirical results reveal that families who are likely to incur higher health-care spending because of family members’ existing health conditions were most affected by changes in cost sharing, while families with older policyholders at higher percentiles of the out-of-pocket spending distribution experienced decreases in such spending.

Date: 2014
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