An econometric model of health care demand with non-linear pricing

Johannes Kunz and Rainer Winkelmann

No 204, ECON - Working Papers from Department of Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: From 2004 to 2012, the German social health insurance levied a co-payment for the first doctor visit in a calendar quarter. We develop a new model for estimating the effect of such a co-payment on the individual number of visits per quarter. The model allows for a one time increase in the otherwise constant hazard rate determining the timing of doctor visits, and uses a difference-in-differences strategy to identify the reform effect. The model can be adapted to a situation where the reporting period and the calendar quarter differ. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we do not find an effect of the co-payment on demand for doctor visits.

Keywords: Count data; Poisson process; co-payment; hurdle model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C25 I10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ias
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: An Econometric Model of Healthcare Demand With Nonlinear Pricing (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zur:econwp:204

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