This article examines the choice of health care in Japan by patients suffering from the common cold. Original data were obtained from a survey conducted by the authors. Empirical results show that the price elasticity of demand for medical services is between 0.23 and 0.36. This estimated price...

This paper examines HSA and HRA assets, account balances, and rollover amounts, using data from the 2011 EBRI/MGA Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey (CEHCS), sponsored by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates. It then examines differences and trends in...

Private insurance firms participating in Medicare can offer up to three principal plan types: coordinated care plans (CCPs), prescription drug plans (PDPs), and private fee for service (PFFS) plans. Firms can make entry and marketing decisions separately across plan types and geographic regions....

This paper investigates the relationship between portfolio allocation decisions and out-of-pocket healthcare expenses of elderly U.S. households. More specifically, it analyzes the impact of increasing healthcare costs on households’ assets allocation decisions between 1992 and 2006....

One impetus for reform of the health care system in the United States is that in the U.S. more is spent on medical care than in other countries, with no noticeable difference in results. It is commonly thought that this is a result of a defect in the organization of medicine in the U.S. which...

Using SOEP panel data and difference-in-differences methods, this study is the first to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of four different health care cost containment measures within an integrated framework. The four measures investigated were introduced in Germany in 1997 to reduce moral...

This paper examines HSA and HRA assets, account balances, and rollover amounts. It examines the types of individuals likely to have an HSA or HRA. It then examines differences and trends in account balances by demographics, income, contribution levels, and engagement in an individual’s own...

Pay-for-performance programs offering additional payments to GPs can be used not only to improve the quality of care but also for cost containment purposes. In this paper, we analyze the impact of removing financial incentives in primary care that were aimed at containing hospital expenditure in...

This paper empirically investigates the relationship between the health care expenditure of end-of-life patients and hospital characteristics in Taiwan where (1) hospitals of different ownership differ in their financial incentives; (2) patients are free to choose their providers; and (3) health...

Effective in 2000, Medicare’s Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) sets pre-determined reimbursement rates for hospital outpatient services, replacing the prior costbased methods of reimbursement. Using Florida outpatient discharge data, we study the effect of OPPS on hospital...