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Public and private choice in UK health insurance

Author

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  • John Hall

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies)

  • Ian Preston

    (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University College London)

Abstract

Many parts of the public sector coexist with private provision of similar services and in such circumstances we may expect to find interaction between public and private choices. Quality of publicly provided services will be a central influence on decisions whether to make use of private substitutes and use of private substitutes will feed back into attitudes towards the level of public spending. In this paper we present evidence using the British Social Attitudes Survey to show that individual take up of private medical insurance inhibits support for spending on the public health sector. Such effects have been shown to be appreciable and allowance for the joint determination of insurance decisions and attitudes magnifies the size of the estimated effects.

Suggested Citation

  • John Hall & Ian Preston, 1998. "Public and private choice in UK health insurance," IFS Working Papers W98/19, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:98/19
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    File URL: http://www.ifs.org.uk/wps/wp9819.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Andreas Bergh, 2008. "Explaining the Survival of the Swedish Welfare State: Maintaining Political Support Through Incremental Change," Financial Theory and Practice, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 32(3), pages 233-254.
    2. Chen, Alice J., 2012. "When does weight matter most?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 285-295.
    3. Ángel López-Nicolás & Marcos Vera-Hernández, 2002. "Are tax subsidies for private medical insurance self-financing? Evidence from a microsimulation model for outpatient and inpatient episodes," Working Papers, Research Center on Health and Economics 632, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Oct 2004.
    4. Joan Costa & Jaume Garcia, 2001. "Demand for private health insurance: Is there a quality gap?," Working Papers, Research Center on Health and Economics 531, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    5. Joan Costa & Jaume Garcia, 2003. "Demand for private health insurance: how important is the quality gap?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(7), pages 587-599, July.
    6. Martinussen, Pål E. & Magnussen, Jon, 2019. "Is having private health insurance associated with less support for public healthcare? Evidence from the Norwegian NHS," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(7), pages 675-680.
    7. Marenzi, Anna & Rizzi, Dino & Zanette, Michele, 2021. "Incentives for voluntary health insurance in a national health system: Evidence from Italy," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(6), pages 685-692.
    8. Joan Costa‐Font & Jaume García‐Villar, 2009. "Risk Attitudes And The Demand For Private Health Insurance: The Importance Of ‘Captive Preferences’," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 80(4), pages 499-519, December.
    9. Ying Zhang & Rui Wang & Xinyi Yao, 2019. "Assessing determinants of health care prepayment in China: Economic growth or government willingness? New evidence from the continuous wavelet analysis," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 694-712, January.
    10. López Nicolás, Ángel & Vera-Hernández, Marcos, 2008. "Are tax subsidies for private medical insurance self-financing? Evidence from a microsimulation model," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1285-1298, September.
    11. Hall, John & Preston, Ian, 2000. "Tax price effects on attitudes to hypothecated tax increases," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 417-438, March.
    12. Carol Propper, 2001. "Expenditure on healthcare in the UK: a review of the issues," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 22(2), pages 151-183, June.

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