@TechReport{iza:izadps:dp317, author={Winkelmann, Rainer}, title={Health Care Reform and the Number of Doctor Visits - An Econometric Analysis}, year={2001}, month={Jun}, institution={Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)}, address={Bonn}, type={IZA Discussion Paper}, number={317}, url={https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp317}, abstract={The paper evaluates the German health care reform of 1997, using the individual number of doctor visits as outcome measure. A new econometric model, the Probit-Poisson-log-normal model with correlated errors, describes the data better than existing count data models. Moreover, it has an attractive structural interpretation, as it allows the reforms to have a different effect at different parts of the distribution. The overall effect of the reform was a 10 percent reduction in the number of doctor visits. The effect was much larger in the lower part of the distribution than in the upper part.}, keywords={count data;moral hazard;Co-payment;probit-Poisson-log-normal model}, }