Reducing Medical Spending of the Publicly Insured: The Case for a Cash-Out Option
研究通过理论模型和生命周期模型，提出允许参保者用现金替代公共医疗保险，以减少非必要医疗支出，对政策制定者和保险设计者有参考价值。
Individuals’ medical spending has both necessary and discretionary components, which are not, however, separately observable. This paper studies ways to improve upon existing public health insurance policies by using a framework where both the discretionary and necessary components of medical spending are explicitly modeled. First, using a simple theoretical framework, the paper shows that the key to reducing discretionary medical spending is to introduce a trade-off between nonmedical and medical consumption. Next, using a rich quantitative life-cycle model, the paper shows that this trade-off can be successfully implemented by introducing an option to substitute public health insurance with cash transfers.