An empirical model of health care demand under non-linear pricing

Rainer Winkelmann

VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy from Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association

Abstract: In 2004, the German Social Health Insurance introduced a co-payment for the first doctor visit in a calendar quarter. I combine a structural model of health care demand and a difference-in-differences strategy to estimate the effect of that reform on the number of visits. In the model, the implied incentive to delay a first visit also affects subsequent visits, as the expected remaining time to the end of quarter is reduced. This effect has been ignored by the prior literature using standard hurdle count models. Data are from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Results show no statistically significant reduction in visits due to the reform.

JEL-codes: C25 C31 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/113027/1/VfS_2015_pid_187.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: An Empirical Model of Health Care Demand under Non-linear Pricing (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:vfsc15:113027

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