An experimental investigation of patient preference under budget constraints and waiting time for treatment in the hybrid system
Nguyen, VietHung Harry (2018)
2018
Master's Degree Programme in Public Choice
Yhteiskuntatieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2018-06-06
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202004173343
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202004173343
Tiivistelmä
It is manageable for consumers to precisely know a certain amount of fruits to buy for a day or a week but it is not for patient’s demand for health care which is highly uncertain. When getting ill and in need of medical care, individual patient often faces budget constraints for private fees for fast access to private treatment and waiting time for public treatment at a low cost. The main aim of the thesis is to characterise the patient preference for public and private treatment under budget constraints in the hybrid systems. Of the particular research approach is theoretically modelling and experimental implementation to examine the demand model of revealed preference. The neutrally-framed experiment design with revealed preferences allows to test individual behavioural choice and willingness to pay for private treatment under the budget constraints in a hybrid system.
Overall, high-income individuals have a higher opting out decision rate and a larger number of private fee purchases compared to their low-income counterparts, which is consistent with the theoretical predictions. Therefore, the experimental results accord well with underlying theoretical predictions for the rationale of low-income individuals to opt in with waiting time and no private purchase and to benefit from social transfer of income distribution through a public healthcare system. Yet, apparently the high-income individuals appear to have a low willingness to pay for private fees for less waiting time but prefer to make efforts to save their budget from private consumption.
The experimental results largely confirm the theoretical predictions that high-income individuals and low-leisure-time individuals opt out more than low-income individuals and high-leisure-time individuals. Moreover, it is worth noting an inconsistency between the experimental finding and the theoretical prediction. The key deviation from the experiment result is that high-income individuals opted out largely as predicted but opted in so much particularly the high leisure time group.
Overall, high-income individuals have a higher opting out decision rate and a larger number of private fee purchases compared to their low-income counterparts, which is consistent with the theoretical predictions. Therefore, the experimental results accord well with underlying theoretical predictions for the rationale of low-income individuals to opt in with waiting time and no private purchase and to benefit from social transfer of income distribution through a public healthcare system. Yet, apparently the high-income individuals appear to have a low willingness to pay for private fees for less waiting time but prefer to make efforts to save their budget from private consumption.
The experimental results largely confirm the theoretical predictions that high-income individuals and low-leisure-time individuals opt out more than low-income individuals and high-leisure-time individuals. Moreover, it is worth noting an inconsistency between the experimental finding and the theoretical prediction. The key deviation from the experiment result is that high-income individuals opted out largely as predicted but opted in so much particularly the high leisure time group.