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- Title
Doctor-Visit Co-Payment Exemption for Children: First Look at the Data.
- Authors
Zápal, Jan
- Abstract
This paper uses the abolition of children's doctor-visit co-payments effective since April 2009 as a natural experiment to estimate the effect of those co-payments on the number of doctor visits made by children. As the policy change involved only children, we are able to use the adult part of the population as a control group in a difference-in-difference estimation. The paper approximates the number of doctor visits by consumption of prescription drugs, as visiting a doctor is the only way to obtain a prescription. Using three different pre-reform periods (January, February, and March 2009) and two post-reform periods (April and May 2009) the estimates reveal no overall effect of doctor-visit co- -payments on the number of children's doctor visits. Less convincingly and more tentatively, the estimates suggest a strategic shift of children's doctor visits away from the last pre-reform toward the first post-reform month.
- Subjects
PHYSICIAN salaries; CHILDREN'S health; CONTROL groups; PAYMENT; PEDIATRIC clinics; PEDIATRICIANS; POPULATION; DRUGS; MEDICAL prescriptions; GOVERNMENT policy
- Publication
Finance a Uver: Czech Journal of Economics & Finance, 2010, Vol 60, Issue 1, p58
- ISSN
0015-1920
- Publication type
Article