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KMID : 1124020110270010277
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Korean Social Security Studies
2011 Volume.27 No. 1 p.277 ~ p.292
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The effects of supplementary private health insurance on healthcare utilization and expenditures: indemnity vs fixed-benefit
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You Chang-Hoon
Kang Sung-Wook
Kwon Young-Dae
Oh Eun-Hwan
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Abstract
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As indemnity reimbursing for the medical costs that actually occurred among the types of supplementary private health insurance (SPHI) has become widely spread in Korea, concerns whether healthcare use was increased by the insured of indemnity PHI were grown. The study using 『2008 Korea Health Panel』 analyzed the sample of 10,482 who were the insured people in SPHI for the effects on healthcare utilization of indemnity compared to fixed-benefit. Multivariate analyses were conducted to identify effects of indemnity SPHI on healthcare utilization and expenditures, controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and health behavior variables. The results showed that the insured of indemnity SPHI was 8.5% and the rest(91.5%) was the insured of fixed-benefit. There was no significant differences in demographic or socioeconomic variables in the characteristics of the insured between indemnity and fixed-benefit. The insured of indemnity SPHI had more outpatient services (numbers of physician visits and the total amount of out-of-pocket) and inpatient services (length of stay per hospitalization and the amount of out-of-pocket per hospitalization) compared to the counterpart. The increase of healthcare use by indemnity is unclear whether by the unmet needs were realized or moral hazard was appeared. Further studies are needed to evaluate the results and policy responses are required.
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KEYWORD
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private health insurance, indemnity, fixed-benefit, healthcare utilization, healthcare expenditures, out-of-pocket
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