An evaluation on the effect of the copayment waiver policy for Korean hospitalized children under the age of six.
BACKGROUND
In January 2006, the Korean government implemented a copayment waiver policy for hospitalized children under the age of 6 years to reduce the economic burden on patients. This policy was implemented from 2006 to 2007 in Korea and involved hospitalized children under the age of 6 years. The goal of this study is to evaluate the effect of the copayment waiver policy on health insurance beneficiaries.


METHODS
The change in medical service utilization before and after the policy implementation was analyzed using data from the national health insurance corporation (NHIC) and compared with medical aid beneficiaries who were already exempt from copayment. The "difference in difference" method was applied to determine the net effect of the copayment waiver policy.


RESULTS
The net effect of policy implementation on NHIC beneficiaries was unclear by the "difference in difference" method because the number of inpatient days and hospital expenditure after policy implementation showed opposite results. The copayment waiver policy did not decrease the intensity of health care utilization when compared with the medical aid beneficiaries group. Among the NHIC beneficiaries, patients who utilized medical services for fatal disease and those with the low premiums group were more affected by the policy.


CONCLUSIONS
The net effect of copayment waiver policy remains unclear. Therefore, further studies are needed to determine the effects of policies implemented to reduce the economic burden on patients, such as the herein-described copayment waiver policy.
Bureau of Welfare Administration Support, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Sejong, South Korea. ksy921@naver.com.
Sook Young
SY
Kwak
Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea. yoonsj02@korea.ac.kr.
Seok-Jun
SJ
Yoon
Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea. parenchyme@gmail.com.
In-Hwan
IH
Oh
Division for Healthcare Technology Assessment Research, National Evidence-based healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA), Seoul, South Korea. kimyes1202@daum.net.
Young-Eun
YE
Kim
D002673:Child, Hospitalized; D002675:Child, Preschool; D017047:Cost Sharing; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D005382:Financing, Personal / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000191:economics; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D056910:Republic of Korea