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Discussion Papers In Economics And Business. 2011, 10-13-Rev.

Can the health insurance reforms stop an increase in medical expenditures for middle- and old-aged persons in Japan?

Graduate School of Economics and Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), Osaka University

英語

text

2011-12

http://www2.econ.osaka-u.ac.jp/library/global/dp/1013R.pdf

* Revised: Can the Health Insurance Reforms stop an increase in medical costs of middle- and old-aged persons in Japan? [10-13, 2010]

Using two-period panel data from the Nippon Life Insurance ResearchInstitute, this paper tests the hypothesis that an increase in the self-pay ratio of medicalexpenditures associated with the Japanese health insurance reforms of April 2003reduced household medical expenditures. We find that the increase in the self-pay ratiohad a positive but insignificant effect on the share of medical expenses in householdexpenditure. However, when we employ the data as repeated cross-sectionalobservations to increase the sample size, the increase in the self-pay ratio has asignificantly positive effect on the share of medical expenditures. This providescorroborating evidence that middle- and old-aged persons were unable to reduce theirdemand for medical services with the increase in the self-pay ratio. An additionalfinding is that medical services are a necessary good, particularly for those aged 61years or older and those with medical expenditures accounting for a relatively highshare of medical expenditures in high household expenditure.

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Can the health insurance reforms stop an increase in medical expenditures for middle- and old-aged persons in Japan?

Graduate School of Economics and Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), Osaka University

英語

2011-12

Discussion Papers In Economics And Business

10-13-Rev.

https://hdl.handle.net/11094/13334

http://www2.econ.osaka-u.ac.jp/library/global/dp/1013R.pdf