Does free hospitalization insurance change health care consumption of the poor? Short-term evidence from Pakistan
- We analyze short-term effects of free hospitalization insurance for the poorest quintile of the population in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. First, we exploit that eligibility is based on an exogenous poverty score threshold and apply a regression discontinuity design. Second, we exploit imperfect rollout and compare insured and uninsured households using propensity score matching. With both methods we fail to detect significant effects on the incidence of hospitalization. Whereas the program did not meaningfully increase the quantity of health care consumed, insured households more often choose private hospitals, indicating a shift towards higher perceived quality of care.
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| Document Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Author: | Simona Helmsmüller, Andreas Landmann |
| Parent Title (English): | The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review |
| Volume: | 47 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| First Page: | 238 |
| Last Page: | 275 |
| ISSN: | 1554-964X |
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:1044-opus-59809 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s10713-021-00069-0 |
| Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Publishing Institution: | Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg |
| Date of first publication: | 2021/10/25 |
| Copyright: | © The Author(s) 2021. |
| Funding Information: | The survey and administrative data were produced and procured for the evaluation of the SHPI program, which was financed by the KfW Development Bank as part of a collaboration with its evaluation unit. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. |
| Keyword: | Health care consumption; Health insurance; Pakistan; Program evaluation; Universal health care |
| Departments, institutes and facilities: | Fachbereich Sozialpolitik und Soziale Sicherung |
| Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC): | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 30 Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie / 304 Das Sozialverhalten beeinflussende Faktoren |
| 6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 613 Persönliche Gesundheit und Sicherheit | |
| Entry in this database: | 2021/11/05 |
| Licence (German): |  Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
