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Private Medical Insurance and Saving: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Alessandra Guariglia

    (University of Kent, Canterbury)

  • Mariacristina Rossi

    (University of Rome II - Faculty of Economics)

Abstract
This paper uses the British Household Panel Survey for the years 1996 to 2000 to investigate whether individuals in the UK save for precautionary motives against uncertain medical costs. In particular, we test the hypothesis that those individuals who are not covered by private medical insurance, and who are therefore more exposed to facing unexpected health care expenditures or loss of income while waiting for treatment, tend to save more than those who are covered. According to our findings, which are based on a wide range of econometric specifications, there is a positive association between insurance coverage and saving, suggesting that private medical insurance does not crowd out private saving. This relationship is however weaker in areas where people feel the quality of medical facilities to be poor and in rural areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Alessandra Guariglia & Mariacristina Rossi, 2003. "Private Medical Insurance and Saving: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey," CEIS Research Paper 39, Tor Vergata University, CEIS.
    • Handle: RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:39
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    Cited by:

    1. Wagstaff, Adam & Pradhan, Menno, 2005. "Health insurance impacts on health and nonmedical consumption in a developing country," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3563, The World Bank.
    2. Le, Trinh, 2007. "Does New Zealand have a household saving crisis?," NZIER Working Paper 2007/1, New Zealand Institute of Economic Research.
    3. Asako Ohinata & Matteo Picchio, 2020. "Financial support for long-term elderly care and household saving behaviour," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 72(1), pages 247-268.
    4. Chung-Ming Kuan & Chien-Liang Chen, 2013. "Effects of National Health Insurance on precautionary saving: new evidence from Taiwan," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 921-943, April.
    5. Minchung Hsu, 2013. "Health Insurance and Precautionary Saving: A Structural Analysis," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(3), pages 511-526, July.
    6. Raslan Alzuabi & Sarah Brown & Daniel Gray & Mark N Harris & Christopher Spencer, 2022. "Household saving, health, and healthcare utilization in Japan [Stature, obesity, and portfolio choice]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 473-497.
    7. Sarah Brown & Pulak Ghosh & Bhuvanesh Pareek & Karl Taylor, 2017. "Financial Hardship and Saving Behaviour: Bayesian Analysis of British Panel Data," Working Papers 2017011, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics.
    8. Clark, Robert L. & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2014. "How does retiree health insurance influence public sector employee saving?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 109-118.
    9. Malakhov, Sergey, 2014. "Willingness to overpay for insurance and for consumer credit: search and risk behavior under price dispersion," MPRA Paper 59720, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Hsu, Minchung, 2008. "Health Insurance, the Social Welfare System and Household Saving," MPRA Paper 21281, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2010.
    11. Lee, Daeyong, 2016. "Effects of dependent coverage mandate on household precautionary savings: Evidence from the 2010 Affordable Care Act," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 32-37.
    12. Sergey MALAKHOV, 2014. "Willingness to Overpay for Insurance and for Consumer Credit: Search and Risk Behavior Under Price Dispersion," Expert Journal of Economics, Sprint Investify, vol. 2(3), pages 109-119.
    13. Nguyen, John, 2023. "The impact of private health insurance on household savings : Evidence from Australia," Warwick-Monash Economics Student Papers 48, Warwick Monash Economics Student Papers.
    14. Gallagher, Emily A. & Gopalan, Radhakrishnan & Grinstein-Weiss, Michal & Sabat, Jorge, 2020. "Medicaid and household savings behavior: New evidence from tax refunds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(2), pages 523-546.
    15. Bai, Chong-En & Wu, Binzhen, 2014. "Health insurance and consumption: Evidence from China’s New Cooperative Medical Scheme," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 450-469.
    16. Patryk Babiarz & Richard Widdows & Tansel Yilmazer, 2013. "Borrowing To Cope With Adverse Health Events: Liquidity Constraints, Insurance Coverage, And Unsecured Debt," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(10), pages 1177-1198, October.
    17. Loretti I. Dobrescu, 2015. "To Love or to Pay: Savings and Health Care in Older Age," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(1), pages 254-299.
    18. Brown, Sarah & Ghosh, Pulak & Pareek, Bhuvanesh & Taylor, Karl, 2021. "The protective role of saving: Bayesian analysis of British panel data," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 57-72.
    19. Hua Guo & Yang Zhang & Yanling Peng & Tong Luo & Hong Wang, 2022. "Does COVID-19 Affect Household Financial Behaviors? Fresh Evidence From China," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, August.
    20. Lim, Kyoung Mook, 2020. "Public provision of health insurance and aggregate saving in an overlapping generations model with endogenous health risk: The South Korean case," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 233-246.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    precautionary saving; private medical insurance;

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health

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