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Coinsurance vs. copayments : reimbursement rules for a monopolistic medical product with competitive health insurers

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  • Helmuth Cremer

    (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

  • Jean-Marie Lozachmeur

    (TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

This paper studies a market for a medical product in which there is perfect competition among health insurers, while the good is sold by a monopolist. Individuals di¤er in their severity of illness and there is ex post moral hazard. We consider two regimes : one in which insurers use coinsurance rates (ad valorem reimbursements) and one in which insurers use copayments (specic reimbursements). We show that the induced equilibrium with copayments involves a lower producer price and a higher level of wel- fare for consumers. This results provides strong support for a reference price based reimbursement policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Helmuth Cremer & Jean-Marie Lozachmeur, 2022. "Coinsurance vs. copayments : reimbursement rules for a monopolistic medical product with competitive health insurers," Working Papers hal-03629480, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-03629480
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03629480
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Helmuth Cremer & Jean-Marie Lozachmeur, 2024. "Nonlinear Reimbursement Rules for Preventive and Curative Medical Care," CESifo Working Paper Series 11186, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ex post moral hazard; Health insurance competition; Copayments; Imperfect competition;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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