How Health Plan Enrollees Value Prices Relative to Supplemental Benefits and Service Quality

Christian Bünnings, Hendrik Schmitz, Harald Tauchmann and Nicolas Ziebarth ()

No 545, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: This paper empirically assesses the relative role of health plan prices, service quality and optional benefits in the decision to choose a health plan. We link representative German SOEP panel data from 2007 to 2010 to (i) health plan service quality indicators, (ii) measures of voluntary benefit provision on top of federally mandated benefits, and (iii) health plan prices for almost all German health plans. Mixed logit models incorporate a total of 1,700 health plan choices with more than 50 choice sets for each individual. The findings suggest that, compared to prices, health plan service quality and supplemental benefits play a minor role in making a health plan choice.

Keywords: service quality; non-essential benefits; prices; health plan switching; German sickness funds; SOEP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 H51 I11 I13 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-eur and nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/107695/1/819684007.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: How Health Plan Enrollees Value Prices Relative to Supplemental Benefits and Service Quality (2015)
Working Paper: How Health Plan Enrollees Value Prices Relative to Supplemental Benefits and Service Quality (2015)
Working Paper: How health plan enrollees value prices relative to supplemental benefits and service quality (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:rwirep:545

DOI: 10.4419/86788623

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