@article{c25fcbfef169466b93e07bdf13cf1ebf,
title = "The Effects of Health Insurance within Families: Experimental Evidence from Nicaragua",
abstract = "This paper measures the causal effects of parent enrollment into voluntary health insurance on healthcare utilization among insured and uninsured children in Nicaragua. The study utilizes a randomized trial and age-eligibility cutoff in which insurance subsidies were randomly allocated to parents that covered their dependent children under 12; children age 12 and older were not eligible for coverage. Among eligible children, the insurance increased utilization at covered providers by 0.56 visits and increased overall utilization by 1.3 visits. Ineligible children with insured parents experienced 1.7 fewer healthcare visits driven by parent, not sibling, enrollment. The results suggest complementarities across healthcare provider type and provide evidence that households reallocate resources across all members in response to changes in healthcare prices for some.",
keywords = "Health insurance, children, complementarities, randomized controlled trial, spillovers",
author = "Anne Fitzpatrick and Rebecca Thornton",
note = "Funding Information: Anne Fitzpatrick is an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts–Boston; her email address is
[email protected]. Rebecca Thornton (corresponding author) is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; her email address is
[email protected]. Funding for this study was provided by USAID{\textquoteright}s Private Sector Partnerships-One (PSP-One) project, the Global Development Network (GDN), and the ILO Microinsurance Facility. The evaluation was coordinated for GDN by EA Consultants. The authors thank the extensive contributions of the field team at ALVA Consultores, including Dr. Ana del Carmen Rojas and Rosario Duarte, as well as the project coordination and support of Barbara Magnoni, EA Consultants, and the contributions in the project design of Tania Dmytraczenko, World Bank. This paper has benefited from comments from Taryn Dinkelman, Emily Oster, and Jeff Smith, seminar participants at the University of Michigan; and two anonymous referees. Funding for this study was provided by the US Agency for International Development{\textquoteright}s Private Sector Partnerships-One (PSP-One) project, the Global Development Network (GDN), and the ILO Microinsurance Facility. A supplementary online appendix for this article can be found at The World Bank Economic Review website. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 Published by Oxford University Press. Copyright: Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2019",
month = oct,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1093/wber/lhx012",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "33",
pages = "736--749",
journal = "World Bank Economic Review",
issn = "0258-6770",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
number = "3",
}