The Economic Consequences of Hospital Admissions

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dobkin, Carlos; Finkelstein, Amy; Kluender, Raymond; Notowidigdo, Matthew J.
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Santa Cruz; National Bureau of Economic Research; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Northwestern University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20161038
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 308-352
• 关键词: Consumer bankruptcy; earnings losses; moral hazard; HEALTH; medicare; utility; WEALTH; consumption; mortality

摘要

We use an event study approach to examine the economic consequences of hospital admissions for adults in two datasets; survey data from the Health and Retirement Study, and hospitalization data linked to credit reports. For non-elderly adults with health insurance, hospital admissions increase out-of-pocket medical spending, unpaid medical bills, and bankruptcy, and reduce earnings, income, access to credit, and consumer borrowing. The earnings decline is substantial compared to the out-of-pocket spending increase, and is minimally insured prior to age-eligibility for Social Security Retirement Income. Relative to the insured non-elderly, the uninsured non-elderly experience much larger increases in unpaid medical bills and bankruptcy rates following a hospital admission. Hospital admissions trigger fewer than 5 percent of all bankruptcies in our sample.