The Health Effects of Universal Health Care : Evidence from Thailand

Wagstaff, Adam ; Manachotphong, Wanwiphang

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ADVERSE SELECTION;    AGE GROUPS;    AGED;    AMBULATORY SERVICES;    BENEFICIAL EFFECTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-6119
RP-ID  :  WPS6119

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper exploits the staggeredrollout of Thailand s universal health coverage scheme toestimate its impacts on whether individuals reportthemselves as being too ill to work. The statistical powercomes from the fact that there is an average of 62,000respondents in the labor force survey at each survey dateand no less than 68 survey dates, most of which are just onemonth apart. The analysis finds that universal coveragereduced the likelihood of people reporting themselves to betoo sick to work: the authors estimate the effect to be-0.004 one year after universal coverage and -0.007 threeyears after. The estimated effects are much larger amongthose age 65 and over. Universal coverage had a much largereffect on health (about four times larger) than the VillageFund scheme, which provided free credit to rural householdsthrough a subsidized microcredit scheme and which was rolledout around the same time as universal coverage.