In response to increasing health expenditures and a high number of physician visits, the German government introduced a copayment for ambulatory care in 2004 for individuals with statutory health insurance (SHI). Because persons with private insurance were exempt from the copayments, this health...

Deductibles in health insurance are often regarded as a means to contain health care costs when individuals exhibit moral hazard. However, in the absence of moral hazard, voluntarily chosen deductibles may instead lead to self-selection into different insurance contracts. We use a set of new...

Abstract: Die komplexe Struktur des Gesundheitsmarktes wird maßgeblich von dem Nachfrageverhalten der Krankenversicherten bestimmt, von denen 85% den gesetzlichen Krankenkassen angehören. Diese Arbeit basiert auf einer eigenen Erhebung, die eine Analyse der Dynamik dieses Marktes in bisher...

This paper shows that patients with private health insurance (PHI) are being offered significantly shorter waiting times than patients with statutory health insurance (SHI) in German acute hospital care. This behavior may be driven by the higher expected profitability of PHI relative to SHI...