University of Rosario Reports Findings in Health Services (Price elasticity of demand for voluntary health insurance plans in Colombia): Health and Medicine – Health Services

2022 MAY 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Health and Medicine - Health Services is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from Bogota, Colombia, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Since 1993, Colombia has had a mandatory social health insurance scheme that aims to provide universal health coverage to all citizens. However, some contributory regime participants purchase voluntary private health insurance (VPHI) to access better quality health services (i. e., physicians and hospitals), shorter waiting times, and a more extensive providers’ network.”

Financial support for this research came from World Bank Group,United States.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from the University of Rosario, “This article aims to estimate the price elasticity of demand for the VPHI market in Colombia. We use data from the 2016-2017 consumer expenditure national survey and apply a Heckman selection model to address the selection problem into purchasing private insurance. Using the estimation results to further estimate the price semi-elasticity for VPHI, we then calculate the price elasticity for the households’ health expenditure and acquisition of VHPI. Our main findings indicate that a 1% VPHI price increase reduces the proportion of households affiliated to a VPHI in the country by about 2.32% to 4.66%, with robust results across sample restrictions. There are relevant differences across age groups, with younger households’ heads being less responsive to VPHI price changes. We conclude that the VPHI demand in Colombia is noticeably elastic, and therefore tax policy changes can have a significant impact on public health insurance expenditures.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The government should estimate the optimal VPHI purchase in order to reduce any welfare loss that the current arrangement might be generating.”

For more information on this research see: Price elasticity of demand for voluntary health insurance plans in Colombia. BMC Health Services Research, 2022;22(1):618. BMC Health Services Research can be contacted at: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England. (BioMed Central - http://www.biomedcentral.com/; BMC Health Services Research - http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmchealthservres/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Juan Miguel Gallego, School of Economics, University of Rosario, Calle 12 C No. 4 - 69, 111711, Bogota, Colombia. Additional authors for this research include Maria Sofia Casabianca, Pamela Gongora and Paul Rodriguez-Lesmes.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-07899-2. 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.

Publisher contact information for the journal BMC Health Services Research is: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England.

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