What's the Effect of Copayments and Premium Cost-Sharing on Access and Utilization in State Expansion Programs?

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Effect of Copayments and Premium Cost-Sharing on Access and Utilization in State Expansion Programs

According to health services research, effects of copayments were varied:

Findings of the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, "Free For All?: Lessons from the RAND Health Insurance Experiment," indicated that copayments reduced medical utilization and expenditures, but generally did not affect health status. However, among low-income people, copayments were associated with higher blood pressure.

Prescription drug utilization research indicates that copayments reduce drug use, and therefore could increase hospitalization costs due to complications related to noncompliance.

Research on the TennCare [http://www.state.tn.us/tenncare/] program indicated that many participants went without medication because of drug copayments.

For more information and analysis on the effects on instituting cost-sharing, see A Guide to Cost-Sharing and Low-Income People in Medi-Cal and Other California Health Programs [http://www.familiesusa.org/medcal1.htm] (August 1997).

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Who presented this material?

Leighton Ku, Ph.D., M.P.H.