Universal Coverage on a Budget: Impacts on Health Care Utilization and Out-Of-Pocket Expenditures in Thailand

Supon Limwattananon, Sven Neelsen, Owen O'Donnell, Phusit Prakongsai, Viroj Tangcharoensathien and Eddy Van Doorslaer
Additional contact information
Supon Limwattananon: International Health Policy Program, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand
Sven Neelsen: Institute of Health Policy and Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Phusit Prakongsai: International Health Policy Program, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand
Viroj Tangcharoensathien: International Health Policy Program, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand

No 13-067/V, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: See also 'Universal Coverage with Supply-Side Reform (...)' , 2015, 121, 79-94.

We estimate the impact on health care utilization and out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures of a major reform in Thailand that extended health insurance to one-quarter of the population to achieve universal coverage while keeping health spending below 4% of GDP. Identification is through comparison of changes in outcomes of groups to whom coverage was extended with those of public sector employees and their dependents whose coverage was not affected. The reform is estimated to have reduced the probability that a sick person goes without formal treatment by 3.2 percentage points (11%). It increased the probability of receiving public ambulatory care by 2.7 ppt (5%) and of admission to a public hospital by 1 ppt (18%). OOP expenditures were reduced by one-third on average, as was the probability of spending more than 10% of the household budget on health care, while spending at the very top of the OOP distribution was reduced by one-half representing substantial reductio ns in exposure to medical expenditure risk. Supply-side measures implemented with the coverage extension are likely to have helped realize these effects from an increased, but still very tight, budget.

Keywords: Health Insurance; Health Care; Medical Expenditures; Universal Coverage; Thailand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H42 H51 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-05-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ias and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://papers.tinbergen.nl/13067.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Universal Coverage on a Budget: Impacts on Health Care Utilization and Out-Of-Pocket Expenditures in Thailand (2013)
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:tin:wpaper:20130067

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tinbergen Office +31 (0)10-4088900 ().