Health Cost and Health Risk: The Dynamic Effects of Demand and Supply Cost Sharing in the Primary Care

要約

In this study we developed a novel two-level Self-Organizing Map (SOM) for characterizing the static feature of health cost and the dynamic changing pattern of the cost trajectory in an attempt to discover the reasons for the variation in ambulatory medical expenses and to evaluate the cost sharing effects for the demand and supply sides. Three types of health costs of the insured and five cost trajectories patterns were identified through the first and second level SOMs respectively. The characteristics of the health cost clusters, the changing pattern of the cost trajectory within the sample population, as well as the medical cost control effects of the co-payment system and the global budget payment system are discussed in this paper.

Keywords: National Health Insurance, Health Cost, Health Risk, Moral Hazard, Self-Organizing Maps