Abstract
Many studies have attempted to investigate the drivers of preventive behaviour. This study contributes to this strand of literature by examining the association between higher insurance deductibles in the Swiss health system and preventive behaviour that allows for maintaining a good diet, exercising and limiting/abstaining from smoking and alcohol consumption. To conduct our study, we made use of the 2017 Swiss Health Survey and employed an ordered probit model with each prevention aspect as a dependant variable. Our results show that, except for alcohol consumption, higher insurance deductibles were significantly associated with higher behavioural prevention. Our study also highlighted how numerous other factors influenced prevention and offered some guidance for public policies to further incentivise prevention decisions.
Highlights
Behaviour: Evidence from the SwissEx-ante moral hazard refers to the disincentives to perform preventive activities due to insurance (Zweifel and Manning 2000)
Our aim was to investigate the effect of higher deductibles in the Swiss health system on the decision to engage in healthy behaviours, i.e., having a good diet, exercising and limiting/abstaining from smoking and alcohol consumption
Except for alcohol consumption, higher insurance deductibles were significantly associated with higher behavioural prevention
Summary
Ex-ante moral hazard refers to the disincentives to perform preventive activities due to insurance (Zweifel and Manning 2000). Individuals with more insurance would tend to undertake fewer preventive activities as they do not receive all the benefits of prevention since the potential loss is already covered by insurance. Some argue that in health insurance, such phenomena hardly exist, as the loss of health due to less prevention is not fully compensated by insurance, only medical care expenses are (e.g., Cutler and Zeckhauzer 2000). Empirical evidence is rather scant and offers mixed support for the presence of ex-ante moral hazard in health insurance. Our aim was to investigate the effect of higher deductibles in the Swiss health system on the decision to engage in healthy behaviours, i.e., having a good diet, exercising and limiting/abstaining from smoking and alcohol consumption
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