Abstract
A large literature shows that attaining private health insurance (PHI) improves the health of individuals who do not have access to healthcare that is provided free of charge. However, even when individuals already benefit from public health insurance, complementary and supplementary PHI may benefit population health. We study the association between health and PHI for hospital care in Australia that individuals purchase in addition to a comprehensive public health insurance and the provision of free care in public hospitals. We find that hospital PHI holders have better health but identify no significant relationship between attaining hospital PHI or between policy-induced PHI and health.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 32 |
| Journal | Empirical Economics |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 9 Nov 2024 |
Keywords
- Health
- Mandates
- Mental health
- Private health insurance