The influence of health care preferences on insurance enrollment and medical expenditure behaviors

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Cohen, Steven B.^a

Affiliations: [a] Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends (CFACT), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 540 Gaither Road John M. Eisenberg Building, Rockville, Maryland, 20850. Tel.: +301 427 1466; Fax: +301 427 1277; E-mail: scohen@ahrq.gov

Abstract: Individual attitudes and opinions may visibly impact upon an individual's decisions on how and when to use health care services and associated decisions with respect to medical expenditures. These health care preferences also serve as important inputs in helping to predict health insurance coverage take-up decisions. This paper considers the degree of concordance over time in health care attitudes regarding the need and value of health insurance coverage based on national data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. It demonstrates that individuals who consistently indicated they were healthy and did not need coverage were substantially less likely to have a medical expense in both years, relative to their counterparts who consistently disagreed with that classification. The paper also finds that adults under the age of 65 who consistently indicated that health insurance was not worth the cost were at nearly three times as likely to be continuously uninsured relative to those who consistently disagreed.

Keywords: Healthcare preferences, medical expenditures, health insurance, MEPS

DOI: 10.3233/JEM-140381

Journal: Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 325-345, 2013