THE EFFECT OF HEALTH-INSURANCE COST-SHARING WITHIN EPISODES OF MEDICAL-CARE

This article extends previous research on the effectiveness of health insurance cost sharing by considering its impact upon marginal outpati ent expenditures for people with the same diagnosed condition in both fee-for-service and health maintenance organization contexts. The resu lts suggest that there is no difference in mean outpatient expenditure s between cost-sharing fee-for-service, full insurance fee-for-service , or health maintenance organization patients.