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KMID : 1170320230290020001
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Korean Journal of Health Economics and Policy
2023 Volume.29 No. 2 p.1 ~ p.33
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Exploring the Retirement-healthcare Utilization Puzzle among Korean Retirees
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Ju Si-Yeon
Seo Byeong-Seon
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Abstract
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Korea is facing rapid changes in its demographic structure due to the unprecedented pace of aging and low birth rates, which leads to spiking social costs accordingly. From this perspective, this study is intended to provide empirical evidence on the effect of retirement on medical expenditure, healthcare service utilization, as well as health-related factors of the people adjacent to retirement. We implement a quasi-experimental PSM-DID model to control for the potential heterogeneity of retirees and non-retirees and minimize sample selection bias that may occur in the process of retirement.
Findings show that retirement significantly increases out-of-pocket medical expenditure and the number of doctor visits before matching. After matching, however, retirement does not affect healthcare utilization, except for the inpatient-related indices. This indicates that most of the presumable effects of retirement on medical expenditure and the use of medical services are attributed to the heterogeneity of retirees and non-retirees. Hence, no clear evidence exists that the “Retirement-healthcare Utilization Puzzle” is found among Korean retirees. Both subjective health status and mental health deteriorate after retirement, whereas health-related behaviors show partial improvement, which implies similar results to the previous studies suggesting a decrease in opportunity costs of time and growing interest in health after retirement. This result highlights the importance of in-depth discussion on the retirees’ features and healthcare demand.
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KEYWORD
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retirement, retirement-healthcare utilization puzzle, medical expenditure, healthcare utilization, PSM-DID
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