Chen Chin-Shyan, Peng Yu-I, Lee Ping-Chang, Liu Tsai-Ching
Department of Economics, National Taipei University, 151, University Rd., San Shia, New Taipei City 237, Taiwan.
Department of Public Finance, National Taipei University, 151, University Rd., San Shia, New Taipei City 237, Taiwan.
Health Policy. 2015 Jun;119(6):787-93. doi: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2015.01.004. Epub 2015 Jan 14.
Whether provision of free preventive care for the elderly under National Health Insurance has reduced the risk for curative care use raises much concern in Taiwan. This study analyzes the relationship by examining the impact of health examination utilization on the utilizations of outpatient care and inpatient care. Data come from the 2005 National Health Interview Survey and National Health Insurance Research Database. A two-stage method is used in the estimation. We found a negative relationship between the utilization of preventive care and hospitalization care in terms of length of stay and medical expenditures. On average, the elderly people who used preventive care tended to have 16 shorter hospitalization stays and NTD64,220 lower hospitalization expenditures than their counterparts. In order to improve the health of the elderly and reduce the escalation of medical expenditures due to aging, including preventive care in the health insurance is a very effective strategy.
在台湾，全民健康保险为老年人提供免费预防保健服务是否降低了他们接受治疗性护理的风险备受关注。本研究通过考察健康检查利用情况对门诊护理和住院护理利用情况的影响来分析这种关系。数据来自2005年国民健康访谈调查和全民健康保险研究数据库。估计过程采用两阶段方法。我们发现，在住院天数和医疗支出方面，预防保健利用与住院护理之间存在负相关关系。平均而言，使用预防保健服务的老年人比未使用的老年人住院天数缩短16天，住院支出降低新台币64,220元。为了改善老年人的健康状况并减少因老龄化导致的医疗支出增长，将预防保健纳入健康保险是一项非常有效的策略。
