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THE EFFECT OF INSURANCE COVERAGE ON PREVENTIVE CARE
Author(s) -
Cabral Marika,
Cullen Mark R.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/ecin.12442
Subject(s) - preventive care , health care , health insurance , actuarial science , differential effects , cover (algebra) , differential (mechanical device) , economics , managed care , public economics , business , medicine , economic growth , mechanical engineering , aerospace engineering , engineering
Despite the growth in health insurance products that differentially cover preventive care and nonpreventive care, little is known about how preventive care utilization responds to targeted changes in coverage. Using administrative data from a large company, this paper examines the implementation of an insurance benefit design which differentially increased the price of nonpreventive care while decreasing the price of prevention. Leveraging a difference‐in‐differences research strategy, we find that preventive care utilization did not increase and even declined due to the differential price change. This evidence indicates a meaningful negative cross‐price effect, suggesting that nonpreventive care and preventive care are complements. ( JEL I13, I11)