Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/294146 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 1432
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
The examination of the causal impact of health insurance coverage on healthcare utilisation is a critical endeavour in both academic research and policy formulation. However, this endeavour faces challenges, notably the endogenous selection into coverage and prevalent misreporting of coverage status. This study pioneers an investigation into the effects of private health insurance (PHI) coverage on healthcare utilisation, considering the intricacies of misreporting and endogeneity. To address misreporting, we analyse linked survey and administrative data with a precise coverage indicator. For endogeneity, we employ four established methodologies, including an instrumental variable approach leveraging an age-based policy discontinuity to construct an instrument. Our findings unveil that individuals with PHI coverage tend to access healthcare services more frequently, particularly primary care visits and specialist consultations. Nonetheless, the magnitude and statistical significance of these effects exhibit variability across different healthcare services and methodological approaches. Additionally, we discern notable disparities in the magnitude of PHI estimates between survey-based and administrative PHI indicators, with varying discrepancies across services and methodologies. Notably, our preferred specification underscores that utilising a self-reported PHI indicator with a 10% misreporting rate would result in a substantial overestimation of PHI's impact on the two most commonly utilised healthcare services.
Subjects: 
Health Insurance
Measurement Error
Health Care Demand
Australia
JEL: 
C18
C81
C83
H31
I12
I13
I18
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.