Gerfin Michael, Kaiser Boris, Schmid Christian
Department of Economics, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Health Econ. 2015 Sep;24(9):1164-77. doi: 10.1002/hec.3154. Epub 2015 Feb 3.
Deductibles in health insurance generate nonlinear budget sets and dynamic incentives. Using detailed individual health expenditure data from a Swiss health insurer, we estimate the response in healthcare demand to the discrete price increase generated by resetting the deductible at the start of each calendar year. We find that for individuals with high deductibles, healthcare demand drops by 27%. The decrease is most pronounced for inpatient care and prescription drugs. By contrast, for individuals with low deductibles, there is no significant change in healthcare demand (except for prescription drugs). Overall our results suggest that healthy individuals respond much stronger to the price change.
医疗保险中的免赔额会产生非线性预算约束和动态激励。利用一家瑞士健康保险公司详细的个人医疗支出数据，我们估计了在每个日历年初重置免赔额所导致的价格离散上涨对医疗需求的影响。我们发现，对于高免赔额的个人，医疗需求下降了27%。这种下降在住院护理和处方药方面最为明显。相比之下，对于低免赔额的个人，医疗需求没有显著变化（处方药除外）。总体而言，我们的结果表明，健康的个体对价格变化的反应更为强烈。
