The Role of Different Types of Health Insurance on Access and Utilization: Comparative Results on Two Chronic Conditions (Hypertension and Diabetes Type II Without Complication) - How Patient Economics May Influence Physicians' Prescribing Decisions

摘要

Coverage of outpatient prescription drugs, especially for the growing population of elderly people, is a major policy issue in the USA, especially since the recent implementation of the Medicare drug coverage legislation (Soumerai, 1999). This paper presents comparative results of a series of disease economic models on chronic diseases first developed on hypertension (Huttin, 2002) in order to analyze the role of different types of health insurance and types of payments on access and patterns of drug use.