Plausibly Exogenous [1637] - Copayments (07/27/2024)

LHS Variable
Number of doctor visits

RHS Variable
Price of physicians’ services

Source of Exogenous Variation
German health care reform of 1997: As a part of the reform, co-payments for prescription drugs were increased step up to 200%. However, certain groups of people were exempted from the increase, providing a natural control group against which the changed demand for physicians' services of the treated, those subject to increased co-payments, can be assessed

- Winkelmann (2004), “Co‐payments for prescription drugs and the demand for doctor visits–Evidence from a natural experiment”