Effects of National Health Insurance on household out-of-pocket expenditure structure. (February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ku, Yu-Chun; Chou, Yiing-Jenq; Lee, Miaw-Chwen; Pu, Christy
• Is Part Of: Social science & medicine. Volume 222(2019)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 10
• Publication Date: 2019-02
• Subjects: Out-of-pocket -- National Health Insurance -- Difference-in-difference -- Medical spending; Social medicine -- Periodicals; Medical anthropology -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Médecine sociale -- Périodiques; Anthropologie médicale -- Périodiques; Santé publique -- Périodiques; Psychologie -- Périodiques; Médecine -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 362.105
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.12.010
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0277-9536

Abstract

Abstract: Achieving universal health insurance coverage is a major objective for many countries. Taiwan implemented its National Health Insurance (NHI) program with universal coverage in 1995. This study investigates whether the NHI program affects the level and structures of out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditures. We used data from the Taiwan Survey of Family Income and Expenditure released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics. We identified a case and a control group and then employed coarsened exact matching to match the two groups using several available variables. We then conducted a difference-in-difference analysis and determined that there was a statistically significant negative effect on OOP expenditure that was attributable to NHI (a reduction of 2.11 percentage points in total household expenditure). The largest reductions were found in health care services (−1.63%) and pharmaceuticals (−0.45%). We found a statistically significant positive effect on purchases of private insurance related to health care, which was attributable to NHI (an increase of 0.96 percentage points in household budget share). In addition, we discovered that the NHI program had a greater impact on households of a lower socioeconomic status compared with higher socioeconomic status households. The structure of OOP payments in the post-NHI period remained similar to that of the pre-NHI period in the full sample but varied slightly depending on the educational level of the head of the household. Highlights: Overall OOP decreased after implementation of NHI. The structure of OOP expenditure changed depending on education and income levels. Purchases of private insurance increased after NHI implementation.