The Elasticity of Demand for Health Maintenance Organizations

W. P. Welch

Journal of Human Resources, 1986, vol. 21, issue 2, 252-266

Abstract: This paper analyzes a national sample of firms where employees faced a choice between a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and a conventional insurer such as Blue Cross. A regression analysis is specified as a partial adjustment model and a logit functional form. The long-run price elasticity of demand for HMOs is estimated to be -0.6. To the extent that employers pass on increases in the total premium, the price elasticities facing insurers are higher. Furthermore, the demand for HMOs is a negative function of the copayment charged by the HMO for an office visit.

Date: 1986
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/145801
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

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:uwp:jhriss:v:21:y:1986:i:2:p:252-266

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Human Resources from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().