Catastrophic Medical Expenditure Risk
42 Pages Posted: 1 May 2013
There are 3 versions of this paper
Catastrophic Medical Expenditure Risk
Catastrophic Medical Expenditure Risk
Date Written: April 30, 2013
Abstract
Medical expenditure risk can pose a major threat to living standards. We derive decomposable measures of catastrophic medical expenditure risk from reference-dependent utility with loss aversion. We propose a quantile regression based method of estimating risk exposure from cross-section data containing information on the means of financing health payments. We estimate medical expenditure risk in seven Asian countries and find it is highest in Laos and China, and is lowest in Malaysia. Exposure to risk is generally higher for households that have less recourse to self-insurance, lower incomes, wealth and education, and suffer from chronic illness.
Keywords: medical expenditures, catastrophic payments, downside risk, reference-dependent utility, Asia
JEL Classification: D120, D310, D800, I130, I150
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