Price elasticity of demand for voluntary health insurance plans in Colombia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Since 1993, Colombia has had a mandatory social health insurance scheme that aims to provide universal health coverage to all citizens. However, some contributory regime participants purchase voluntary private health insurance (VPHI) to access better quality health services (i. e., physicians and hospitals), shorter waiting times, and a more extensive providers' network. This article aims to estimate the price elasticity of demand for the VPHI market in Colombia.

Methods

We use data from the 2016-2017 consumer expenditure national survey and apply a Heckman selection model to address the selection problem into purchasing private insurance. Using the estimation results to further estimate the price semi-elasticity for VPHI, we then calculate the price elasticity fo

SUBMITTER: Casabianca MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9082854 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature