An Economic Research for Health Care Program Evaluation: Pediatric Care Utilization, Free Care and Public Hospital

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24530259
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied economics
• Research Institution: Nagoya City University
• Principal Investigator: SAWANO Koichiro 名古屋市立大学, 経済学研究科(研究院), 准教授 (80336354)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 子ども / 医療サービス / 無料化 / 医療費自己負担 / 公立病院の役割 / 経済性・公共性 / インセンティブ設計 / 少子・高齢化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this research is to analysis the economic problems on pediatric care and its utilization. This is constituted of two analysis section: demand side and supply side. On the demand side, our main conclusions are as follows: First, primary determinants of pediatric care utilization are copayment, number of physician (pediatric care specialist) and parents' opportunity cost. Second the magnitude of its price response is very small. Finally a household in Tokyo saved medical care expenditure, which is 10,000 yen per year, on the mandate of its free care. Concerning the supply side, we focus on public hospital and its service delivery. (a) In the rural area, the role and mission is to deliver the primary care. (b) Revenue balancing and service mission are both key objectives, (c) there is the agency problem in its reforms, and then the multitask principal agent model of Holmstrom and Milgrom (1991) constitutes optimal compensation scheme in incentive awards for both performance.

Free Research Field

応用ミクロ経済学、医療経済学