TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Kim, Seonghoon
AU  - Koh, Kanghyock
AU  - Lyou, Wonjun
        TI  - The Effects of Patient Cost-Sharing on Adolescents' Healthcare Utilization and Financial Risk Protection: Evidence from South Korea
        PY  - 2024/Mar/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 16897
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp16897
        AB  - We examine the effects of patient cost-sharing on adolescents' healthcare utilization and out-of-pocket medical expenditures by exploiting the healthcare reform in South Korea that lowered the coinsurance rate for inpatient care from 20% to 5% for children under 16. We apply a difference-in-regression-discontinuities design using administrative claims data. We find that the reform increased adolescents' inpatient care utilization. It also reduced 
out-of-pocket healthcare expenditures. This effect was larger among low-income households, facilitating income redistribution. However, the lack of evidence on health improvements and household consumption spending responses suggests that generous patient cost-sharing for adolescent healthcare may cause efficiency losses.
        KW  - consumption spending
KW  - income redistribution
KW  - out-of-pocket expenditure
KW  - healthcare utilization
KW  - patient cost-sharing
KW  - difference in regression discontinuities design
        ER  -