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Enrollment in Private Medical Insurance and Utilization of Medical Services Among Children and Adolescents: Data From the 2009-2012 Korea Health Panel Surveys

OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to examine the status of children and adolescents with regard to enrollment in private medical insurance (PMI) and to investigate its influence on their utilization of medical services. METHODS: The present study assessed 2973 subjects younger than 19 year...

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Autores principales: Ryu, Dong Hee, Kam, Sin, Doo, Young-Taek
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Korean Society for Preventive Medicine 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4829372/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27055548
http://dx.doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.16.003
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author Ryu, Dong Hee
Kam, Sin
Doo, Young-Taek
author_facet Ryu, Dong Hee
Kam, Sin
Doo, Young-Taek
author_sort Ryu, Dong Hee
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to examine the status of children and adolescents with regard to enrollment in private medical insurance (PMI) and to investigate its influence on their utilization of medical services. METHODS: The present study assessed 2973 subjects younger than 19 years of age who participated in five consecutive Korea Health Panel surveys from 2009 to 2012. RESULTS: At the initial assessment, less than 20% of the study population had not enrolled in any PMI program, but this proportion decreased over time. Additionally, the number of subjects with more than two policies increased, the proportions of holders of indemnity-type only (‘I’-only) and of fixed amount+indemnity-type (‘F+I’) increased, whereas the proportion of holders with fixed amount-type only (‘F’-only) decreased. Compared with subjects without private insurance, PMI policyholders were more likely to use outpatient and emergency services, and the number of policies was proportionately related to inpatient service utilization. Regarding out-patient care, subjects with ‘F’-only PMI used these services more often than did uninsured subjects (odds ratio [OR], 1.69), whereas subjects with ‘I’-only PMI or ‘F+I’ PMI utilized a broad range of inpatient, outpatient, and emergency services relative to uninsured subjects (ORs for ‘I’-only: 1.39, 1.63, and 1.38, respectively; ORs for ‘F+I’: 1.67, 2.09, and 1.37, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest public policy approaches to standardizing PMI contracts, reform in calculation of premiums in PMI, re-examination regarding indemnity insurance products, and mutual control mechanisms to mediate between national health insurance services and private insurers are required.
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spelling pubmed-48293722016-04-22 Enrollment in Private Medical Insurance and Utilization of Medical Services Among Children and Adolescents: Data From the 2009-2012 Korea Health Panel Surveys Ryu, Dong Hee Kam, Sin Doo, Young-Taek J Prev Med Public Health Original Article OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to examine the status of children and adolescents with regard to enrollment in private medical insurance (PMI) and to investigate its influence on their utilization of medical services. METHODS: The present study assessed 2973 subjects younger than 19 years of age who participated in five consecutive Korea Health Panel surveys from 2009 to 2012. RESULTS: At the initial assessment, less than 20% of the study population had not enrolled in any PMI program, but this proportion decreased over time. Additionally, the number of subjects with more than two policies increased, the proportions of holders of indemnity-type only (‘I’-only) and of fixed amount+indemnity-type (‘F+I’) increased, whereas the proportion of holders with fixed amount-type only (‘F’-only) decreased. Compared with subjects without private insurance, PMI policyholders were more likely to use outpatient and emergency services, and the number of policies was proportionately related to inpatient service utilization. Regarding out-patient care, subjects with ‘F’-only PMI used these services more often than did uninsured subjects (odds ratio [OR], 1.69), whereas subjects with ‘I’-only PMI or ‘F+I’ PMI utilized a broad range of inpatient, outpatient, and emergency services relative to uninsured subjects (ORs for ‘I’-only: 1.39, 1.63, and 1.38, respectively; ORs for ‘F+I’: 1.67, 2.09, and 1.37, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest public policy approaches to standardizing PMI contracts, reform in calculation of premiums in PMI, re-examination regarding indemnity insurance products, and mutual control mechanisms to mediate between national health insurance services and private insurers are required. Korean Society for Preventive Medicine 2016-03 2016-03-24 /pmc/articles/PMC4829372/ /pubmed/27055548 http://dx.doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.16.003 Text en Copyright © 2016 The Korean Society for Preventive Medicine This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Ryu, Dong Hee
Kam, Sin
Doo, Young-Taek
Enrollment in Private Medical Insurance and Utilization of Medical Services Among Children and Adolescents: Data From the 2009-2012 Korea Health Panel Surveys
title Enrollment in Private Medical Insurance and Utilization of Medical Services Among Children and Adolescents: Data From the 2009-2012 Korea Health Panel Surveys
title_full Enrollment in Private Medical Insurance and Utilization of Medical Services Among Children and Adolescents: Data From the 2009-2012 Korea Health Panel Surveys
title_fullStr Enrollment in Private Medical Insurance and Utilization of Medical Services Among Children and Adolescents: Data From the 2009-2012 Korea Health Panel Surveys
title_full_unstemmed Enrollment in Private Medical Insurance and Utilization of Medical Services Among Children and Adolescents: Data From the 2009-2012 Korea Health Panel Surveys
title_short Enrollment in Private Medical Insurance and Utilization of Medical Services Among Children and Adolescents: Data From the 2009-2012 Korea Health Panel Surveys
title_sort enrollment in private medical insurance and utilization of medical services among children and adolescents: data from the 2009-2012 korea health panel surveys
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4829372/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27055548
http://dx.doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.16.003
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