Distinguishing moral hazard from access for high-cost healthcare under insurance.

ABSTRACT:

Context

Health policy has long been preoccupied with the problem that health insurance stimulates spending ("moral hazard"). However, much health spending is costly healthcare that uninsured individuals could not otherwise access. Field studies comparing those with more or less insurance cannot disaggregate moral hazard versus access. Moreover, studies of patients consuming routine low-dollar healthcare are not informative for the high-dollar healthcare that drives most of aggregate healthcare spending in the United States.

Methods

We test indemnities as an alternative theory-driven counterfactual. Such conditional cash transfers would maintain an opportunity cost for patients, unlike standard insurance, but also guarantee access to the care. Since indemnities do not exist i

SUBMITTER: Robertson CT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7164657 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature