In this paper, we investigate the effects of cost sharing on the demand for physician services in Japan by using a natural experiment, namely, the increase in the coinsurance rate for household heads in 1997. Our primary finding from the two-year data, which includes the transitory effects of...

This study examines the effect of the 1997 increase in the coinsurance rate for household heads on the demand for medical care and estimates the price elasticity of demand using the change as a natural experiment. It analyses both outpatient and inpatient utilization by using health insurance...