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The Effect of Universal Health Care on the Out-Of-Pocket Health Expenditures: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

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  • Asali, Muhammad

    (College of Management Academic Studies)

  • Pantsulaia, Valida

    (National Bank of Georgia)

Abstract

In the first two quarters of 2013 the Georgian government introduced and fully implemented a universal health care (UHC) plan covering all those not-yet publicly or privately insured. We estimate the effect of the introduction of the universal healthcare plan on the level of out-of-pocket (OOP) health expenditures of households. We find that the program saved households an economically and statistically significant amount of 92 GEL per household/ month: a major effect, amounting to about 10% of the average household monthly income and 30% of the average individual monthly income at the time. The OOP payments reduction is almost totally attributed to people utilizing serious, emergency, or life-saving inpatient and outpatient services—lending support to the hypothesis that the UHC program, not only has reduced the OOP health expenditures, but it might have also improved the overall health status in the country.

Suggested Citation

  • Asali, Muhammad & Pantsulaia, Valida, 2022. "The Effect of Universal Health Care on the Out-Of-Pocket Health Expenditures: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," IZA Discussion Papers 15494, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15494
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Patrick Richard & Regine Walker & Pierre Alexandre, 2018. "The burden of out of pocket costs and medical debt faced by households with chronic health conditions in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-13, June.
    2. Belli, Paolo & Gotsadze, George & Shahriari, Helen, 2004. "Out-of-pocket and informal payments in health sector: evidence from Georgia," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 109-123, October.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    universal healthcare; out of pocket health expenditures; public health; health insurance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I13 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Insurance, Public and Private
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health

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