Who Benefits from the Fixed Copayment of Medical and Pharmaceutical Expenditure among the Korean Elderly?

Abstract

The Korean National Health Insurance system imposes a 30% coinsurance for outpatient medical care and prescription drugs; however, at the age of 65, the coinsurance model changes to a copayment model that offers lower fees for the elderly. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the influence of the copayment model for outpatient visits and prescription drugs on healthcare utilization among the Korean elderly. We compared total outpatient visits, total prescriptions, and out-of-pocket expenses between a case group with copayment reduction (65 years or older) and a control group without any reduction (64 years or younger). We obtained secondary data collected from seven waves of the Korea Health Panel Survey (2010–2016). Outpatient visits increased exclusively in the case group among those with lower income. After adjusting for covariates, the results of the difference-in-differences analysis showed that, compared to the control group, there was a significant increase in outpatient visits among individuals with lower income in the case group. Our study shows that cost sharing changes affect Korean patients with different income levels in different ways.