Does Cost Sharing Affect the Quality of Pharmaceutical Care for the Elderly?
Author InfoGemmill-Toyama, M Costa-Font, J Abstract This paper examines whether cost sharing for prescription drugs improves medication-related quality measured by the probability of inappropriate prescription drug use among US seniors. Using data from 1996 to 2005, we explore various specifications that correct for sample selection, endogeneity¸ and unobserved heterogeneity. We find that user fees reduce the use of potentially inappropriate medications, implying that cost sharing has a positive effect on this aspect of quality. However, the price elasticity is relatively close to zero, suggesting that any quality improvements from co-payments are small. The income elasticity findings also indicate that medication-related quality is a normal good. Download InfoTo download: If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the I
