Studies from Max-Planck Society Describe New Findings in Health Insurance (Heterogeneous Effects of a Nonlinear Price Schedule for Outpatient Care)

Managed Care Weekly Digest

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Investigators publish new report on Health Insurance. According to news originating from Munich, Germany, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "Nonlinear price schedules generally have heterogeneous effects on health-care demand. We develop and apply a finite mixture bivariate probit model to analyze whether there are heterogeneous reactions to the introduction of a nonlinear price schedule in the German statutory health insurance system."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Max-Planck Society, "In administrative insurance claims data from the largest German health insurance plan, we find that some individuals strongly react to the new price schedule while a second group of individuals does not react. Post-estimation analyses reveal that the group of the individuals who do not react to the reform includes the relatively sick."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "These results are in line with forward-looking behavior: Individuals who are already sick expect that they will hit the kink in the price schedule and thus are less sensitive to the co-payment."

For more information on this research see: Heterogeneous Effects of a Nonlinear Price Schedule for Outpatient Care. Health Economics, 2016;26(10):1234-1248. (Wiley-Blackwell - www.wiley.com/; Health Economics - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1050)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from H. Farbmacher, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA), Max Planck Society, Munich, Germany. Additional authors for this research include P. Ihle, I. Schubert, J. Winter and A. Wuppermann (see also Health Insurance).