Do Subsidized Health Programs in Armenia Increase Utilization among the Poor?

This article analyzes the extent to which the Basic Benefit Package (BBP), a subsidized health program in Armenia, increases utilization and affordability of outpatient health care among the poor. We find that beneficiaries of the BBP pay approximately 45 % less in fees for doctor visits (and displa...

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Main Authors:	Angel-Urdinola, Diego, Jain, Shweta
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	EN
Published:	2012
Subjects:	Analysis of Health Care Markets I110 Health: Government Policy Regulation Public Health I180 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics Health Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty P360
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5845

id	okr-10986-5845
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-58452021-04-23T14:02:23Z Do Subsidized Health Programs in Armenia Increase Utilization among the Poor? Angel-Urdinola, Diego Jain, Shweta Analysis of Health Care Markets I110 Health: Government Policy Regulation Public Health I180 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics Health Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty P360 This article analyzes the extent to which the Basic Benefit Package (BBP), a subsidized health program in Armenia, increases utilization and affordability of outpatient health care among the poor. We find that beneficiaries of the BBP pay approximately 45 % less in fees for doctor visits (and display 36 % higher outpatient utilization rates) than eligible users not receiving the BBP. However, even among BBP beneficiaries the level of outpatient health care utilization remains low. This occurs because the program mainly provides discounted fees for doctor visits, but fees do not constitute the main financial constraint for users. Our estimates suggest that other non-fee expenditures, such as prescription medicines, constitute a more significant financial constraint and are not subsidized by the BBP. As a result, outpatient health care remains expensive even for BBP beneficiaries. 2012-03-30T07:34:49Z 2012-03-30T07:34:49Z 2008 Journal Article Economics Bulletin http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5845 EN http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank Journal Article Armenia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	EN
topic	Analysis of Health Care Markets I110 Health: Government Policy Regulation Public Health I180 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics Health Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty P360
spellingShingle	Analysis of Health Care Markets I110 Health: Government Policy Regulation Public Health I180 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: Consumer Economics Health Education and Training: Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty P360 Angel-Urdinola, Diego Jain, Shweta Do Subsidized Health Programs in Armenia Increase Utilization among the Poor?
geographic_facet	Armenia
relation	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
description	This article analyzes the extent to which the Basic Benefit Package (BBP), a subsidized health program in Armenia, increases utilization and affordability of outpatient health care among the poor. We find that beneficiaries of the BBP pay approximately 45 % less in fees for doctor visits (and display 36 % higher outpatient utilization rates) than eligible users not receiving the BBP. However, even among BBP beneficiaries the level of outpatient health care utilization remains low. This occurs because the program mainly provides discounted fees for doctor visits, but fees do not constitute the main financial constraint for users. Our estimates suggest that other non-fee expenditures, such as prescription medicines, constitute a more significant financial constraint and are not subsidized by the BBP. As a result, outpatient health care remains expensive even for BBP beneficiaries.
format	Journal Article
author	Angel-Urdinola, Diego Jain, Shweta
author_facet	Angel-Urdinola, Diego Jain, Shweta
author_sort	Angel-Urdinola, Diego
title	Do Subsidized Health Programs in Armenia Increase Utilization among the Poor?
title_short	Do Subsidized Health Programs in Armenia Increase Utilization among the Poor?
title_full	Do Subsidized Health Programs in Armenia Increase Utilization among the Poor?
title_fullStr	Do Subsidized Health Programs in Armenia Increase Utilization among the Poor?
title_full_unstemmed	Do Subsidized Health Programs in Armenia Increase Utilization among the Poor?
title_sort	do subsidized health programs in armenia increase utilization among the poor?
publishDate	2012
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/5845
_version_	1764396517281497088

Do Subsidized Health Programs in Armenia Increase Utilization among the Poor?

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