Willingness to pay for health insurance among the elderly population in Germany

Abstract

The relatively large extent of average WTP for health insurance indicates that the elderly would probably accept higher contributions to SHI rather than policy efforts to reduce contributions. The identified determinants of WTP might indicate that elderly generally approve the principle of solidarity of the SHI with contributions depending on income rather than morbidity.

A Longitudinal Investigation of Willingness to Pay for Health Insurance in Germany

“…Moreover, contrary to the cross‐sectional analyses (Bock et al. ), where individual health care costs were not associated with WTP, individual health care costs affected WTP positively in our longitudinal setting.…”

“…In total sample and in SHI, findings regarding morbidity are in line with cross‐sectional data (Bock et al. ). In contrast to our study, Bock et al.…”

“…However, as already found by Lavetti, Simon, and White (), changes in household income did not affect WTP for health insurance, which is in contrast to cross‐sectional findings with data from the first wave of the ESTHER study (Bock et al. ), where individual monthly net income was positively associated with WTP. Moreover, contrary to the cross‐sectional analyses (Bock et al.…”

“…The contingent valuation instrument used for this study has been discussed critically (Bock et al. ), especially due to the possibility of influencing people's decisions and thus receiving biased results (Klose ). This refers both to selected money categories in the payment card and the fact that participants could see right from the beginning all answer possibilities.…”

“…Beyond that, preferences of older Germans for health insurance measured as WTP have been examined, albeit restricted to a cross‐sectional design (Bock et al. ). This restriction means that there is a gap in knowledge about how factors affect WTP longitudinally in industrialized countries with comprehensive (social) health insurances.…”