Healthy, wealthy and insured? The role of self-assessed health in the demand for private health insurance
Healthy, wealthy and insured? The role of self-assessed health in the demand for private health insurance
复制标题
DOI：
10.1002/hec.1267
复制
发表时间：
2008-03-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Savage, Elizabeth
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Doiron, Denise;Jones, Glenn;Savage, Elizabeth
逆向选择和道德风险模型都预测风险和保险之间存在正相关关系，但在保险的实证研究中，最常见的发现是负相关。在本文中，我们使用澳大利亚的数据调查事前风险和私人医疗保险之间的关系。澳大利亚制度的体制特点使信息不对称的影响比其他大多数国家更容易识别。我们发现自我评估的健康和私人健康保险之间有很强的正相关。通过应用Lokshin和Ravallion（J. Econ. Behav.器官，2005年; 56：141-172）技术，我们确定了导致这一结果的因素，并在使用更客观的健康指标时恢复了由逆向选择预测的传统负相关关系。我们的研究结果也提供了支持的假设，自我评估的健康捕捉个人特质不一定与风险的健康支出，特别是对风险的态度。具体来说，我们发现那些从事冒险行为的人同时不太可能健康，也不太可能购买保险。版权所有（C）2007约翰威利父子有限公司
Both adverse selection and moral hazard models predict a positive relationship between risk and insurance; yet the most common finding in empirical studies of insurance is that of a negative correlation. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between ex ante risk and private health insurance using Australian data. The institutional features of the Australian system make the effects of asymmetric information more readily identifiable than in most other countries. We find a strong positive association between self-assessed health and private health cover. By applying the Lokshin and Ravallion (J. Econ. Behav. Organ 2005; 56:141-172) technique we identify the factors responsible for this result and recover the conventional negative relationship predicted by adverse selection when using more objective indicators of health. Our results also provide support for the hypothesis that self-assessed health captures individual traits not necessarily related to risk of health expenditures, in particular, attitudes towards risk. Specifically, we find that those persons who engage in risk-taking behaviours are simultaneously less likely to be in good health and less likely to buy insurance. Copyright (C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.