Findings from University of Passau Broaden Understanding of Infectious Diseases and Conditions (Bismarck’s Health Insurance and the Mortality Decline)

2021 FEB 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Infectious Diseases and Conditions is the subject of a report. According to news reporting out of Passau, Germany, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “We study the impact of social health insurance on mortality. Using the introduction of compulsory health insurance in the German Empire in 1884 as a natural experiment, we estimate difference-indifferences and regional fixed effects models exploiting variation in eligibility for insurance across occupations.”

Financial supporters for this research include Economic History Association in 2015, International Doctoral Program “Evidence-Based Economics” of the Elite Network of Bavaria.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Passau, “Our findings suggest that Bismarck’s health insurance generated a significant mortality reduction. Despite the absence of antibiotics and most vaccines, we find the results to be largely driven by a decline of deaths from infectious diseases. Further evidence suggests that statutory access to well-trained doctors was an elementary channel.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “This finding may be explained by insurance fund physicians transmitting new knowledge on infectious disease prevention.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Bismarck’s Health Insurance and the Mortality Decline. Journal of the European Economic Association, 2020;18(5):2561-2607. Journal of the European Economic Association can be contacted at: Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon St, Oxford OX2 6DP, England. (Wiley-Blackwell - http://www.wiley.com/; Journal of the European Economic Association - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1542-4774)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Stefan Bauernschuster, University of Passau, Passau, Germany. Additional authors for this research include Anastasia Driva and Erik Hornung.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvz052. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)