Using a sample of Europeans aged 50+ from twelve countries in the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe … (SHARE) we analyse the role of poor material conditions as a determinant of changes in health over a four-year period. We … find that poverty defined with respect to relative incomes has no effect on changes in health. However, broader measures of …

cost sharing have higher levels of health care spending, controlling for past health care use. We estimate demand … elasticities of total health care spending among this low-income population of approximately -0.12, suggesting that demand …-side price mechanisms in health insurance design work similarly for low-income and higher-income individuals. We also find that …