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How does copayment for health care services affect demand, health and redistribution? A systematic review of the empirical evidence from 1990 to 2011

Overview of attention for article published in HEPAC Health Economics in Prevention and Care, August 2013
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#6 of 1,303)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (95th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
8 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
policy
5 policy sources
twitter
32 X users

Citations

dimensions_citation
108 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
149 Mendeley
citeulike
2 CiteULike
Title
How does copayment for health care services affect demand, health and redistribution? A systematic review of the empirical evidence from 1990 to 2011
Published in
HEPAC Health Economics in Prevention and Care, August 2013
DOI 10.1007/s10198-013-0526-8
Pubmed ID
Authors

Astrid Kiil, Kurt Houlberg

Abstract

This article reviews the quantitative evidence on the behavioural effects of copayment within the health area across a wide range of countries. The review distinguishes itself from previous similar reviews by having a high degree of transparency for the search strategy used to identify the studies included in the review as well as the criteria for inclusion and by including the most recent literature. Empirical studies were identified by performing searches in EconLit. The literature search identified a total of 47 studies of the behavioural effects of copayment. Considering the demand effects, the majority of the reviewed studies found that copayment reduces the use of prescription medicine, consultations with general practitioners and specialists, and ambulatory care, respectively. The literature found no significant effects of copayment on the prevalence of hospitalisations. The empirical evidence on whether copayment for some services, but not for others, causes substitution from the services that are subject to copayment to the 'free' services rather than lower total use is sparse and mixed. Likewise, the health effects of copayment have only been analysed empirically in a limited number of studies, of which half did not find any significant effects in the short term. Finally, the empirical evidence on the distributional consequences of copayment indicates that individuals with low income and in particular need of care generally reduce their use relatively more than the remaining population in consequence of copayment. Hence, it is clear that copayment involves some important economic and political trade-offs.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 32 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 149 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Australia 2 1%
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Japan 1 <1%
Canada 1 <1%
Unknown 144 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 33 22%
Researcher 19 13%
Student > Bachelor 17 11%
Student > Doctoral Student 15 10%
Student > Ph. D. Student 13 9%
Other 21 14%
Unknown 31 21%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 30 20%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 29 19%
Social Sciences 16 11%
Business, Management and Accounting 9 6%
Nursing and Health Professions 7 5%
Other 18 12%
Unknown 40 27%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 100. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 17 January 2023.
All research outputs
#420,433
of 25,374,647 outputs
Outputs from HEPAC Health Economics in Prevention and Care
#6
of 1,303 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#3,069
of 212,161 outputs
Outputs of similar age from HEPAC Health Economics in Prevention and Care
#1
of 21 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,374,647 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,303 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 212,161 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 21 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.