How Cost Sharing Reduced Medical Spending of Participants in the Health Insurance Experiment
Published in: JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association, v. 249, no. 16, Apr. 22, 1983, p. 2220-2222
Posted on RAND.org on January 01, 1983
In a controlled trial of the effects of medical insurance on spending and health status, much less was spent on medical care when patients had to pay for it themselves. They economized by being less prone to seek treatment or be hospitalized for their illnesses. The average cost per hospitalization and per ambulatory episode was the same for all insurance plans.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation External publication series. Many RAND studies are published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, as chapters in commercial books, or as documents published by other organizations.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.