Consumption of Healthcare Services in the United States: The Impact of Health Insurance

Abstract

Over the past few decades, healthcare expenditures in the United States have increased due to a variety of different factors. Depending on their insurance plans, Americans have varying levels of health insurance coverage and may need to make co-payments or pay fully for specific health services. According to multiple studies, health insurance does appear to increase the utilization of healthcare services, except emergency services. Demographic factors such as age, citizenship, and race/ethnicity, as well as the type of health service demanded, all appear to influence the consumption of healthcare in the United States. However, many existing studies conducted in this area are not experimental or randomized, which may result in a lack of validity of the estimated relationship between insurance and healthcare utilization due to confounding variables. A new experimental study, similar to the RAND HIE study, is needed to provide insight into the current relationships between insurance and healthcare utilization, taking into consideration changes in legislation.

Which Direction to Take Further Research on the Impacts of Telomere Attrition on Aging, Age-Related Diseases, and Overall Healthcare Expenditures

“…The existing gaps will then be explored for the purpose of determining which direction telomere research should be taken in the future to answer the unsolved questions posed as a result of the literature review. This paper fits in well both with the general literature (Carraher et al 2004(Carraher et al , 2005; Chapter 5 of Evaluating Challenges and Opportunities for Healthcare Reform, Haas et al 2020;Carraher et al 2008;Vojinović et al 2022;Yu et al 2022;Kamath et al 2023;Sullivan 1999;Sullivan et al 2009) and the journal literature (Courbage and Nicolas 2021;Nobanee et al 2021;Stype 2022;Sibindi 2022;Al Rahahleh 2022;Hamin et al 2022;Kyriakopoulos et al 2022;Leightner 2022;Narita 2023). This paper fits into the Special Issue of the Journal of Risk and Financial Management, as it discusses the influence of age on healthcare expenditures as well as the demand and utilization of healthcare services.…”

“…An increase in the average life expectancy could change the consumption of government support programs and insurance to varying degrees, as there is a strong association between age and consumption of healthcare services, as previously stated. However, there is a question of how much the consumption of healthcare services may change, as there are several factors that influence a consumer's choice to utilize services (Narita 2023).…”