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Do Low-Income Households Respond More to Cost Sharing in Primary Care? Evidence from Regression Discontinuity Design




AuthorsHaaga Tapio, Böckerman Petri, Kortelainen Mika, Tukiainen Janne

Publication year2022

Publication's open availability at the time of reportingOpen Access

Publication channel's open availability Open Access publication channel

Web address https://osf.io/4c8af


Abstract

We examine the heterogeneous effects of copayments of 14 to 21 euros on primary care general practitioner (GP) use in a setting in which access to appointments is based on triage. Using an age-based regression discontinuity (RD) design and variation across areas in whether the copayment is charged (RD-DID), we analyze the effects at the 18th birthday, when previously exempted individuals become subject to copayments. Based on Finnish administrative data from 2011-2019, we find that GP visits decrease by 4-5% in the copayment areas relative to the comparison areas. The reductions are largest for the bottom 20% of the income distribution, i.e., their GP use decreases by 0.08-0.10 annualized visits (7-10%). However, the effects are also larger than average for the top 50%, showing reductions of 0.05-0.06 visits (6-8%).



Last updated on 26/11/2024 05:15:50 PM