Estimating Price Elasticities of Convalescent Care Programmes*

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ziebarth, Nicolas R.
• 署名单位: Leibniz Association; DIW Berlin - Deutsches Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung; Technical University of Berlin
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2010.02370.x
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 816-844
• 关键词: quality-of-life; physician services; health-insurance; demand; spa; episodes; therapy; pain

摘要

This study is the first to estimate price elasticities of demand for convalescent care programmes. In 1997, the German legislature more than doubled the daily co-payments for the publicly insured from euro6 to euro13. The measure caused the overall demand for convalescent care treatments to fall by 20 to 25%. I estimate the price elasticity for medical rehabilitation programmes aimed at preventing work disability to be about -0.3, whereas the elasticity for medical rehabilitation programmes for recovery from accidents at work lies around -0.5. The demand for preventive treatment at health spas is elastic and less than -1.