Co-Payment. International Comparison and Implication for Austria (2003)

A comprehensive report on co-payment, analysing co-payment schemes in several countries and evaluating, for the first time, the fee for out-patient departments of hospitals in Austria (in German)

The recently published ÖBIG study “Co-Payment. International Comparison and Implication for Austria” analyses the effects of co-payments in health care, by investigating several topics: ·

Theory on co-payment: research analysing the effects of co-payments, based on economic theories and on existing evaluation studies (this part was contributed by the research institute iwi) ·

International comparison of co-payment schemes: an investigation of the current co-payment regulation for out-patient medical care, dental care, out-patient de-partments (OPD) in hospitals and pharmaceuticals in eight countries (Germany, Finland, Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, USA) ·

Effectiveness analysis: a study of the financial burden of private financing, including co-payment in the eight countries investigated. ·

Evaluation of the OPD fee in Austria: the first empirical research of the so- called “Behandlungsbeitrag-Ambulanz”, a co-payment for OPD, introduced in April 2001 in Austria

The authors of the study conclude that co-payments are not an appropriate instrument to control utilization of health care. The OPD fee in Austria did not result in the desired effect, namely to shift the utilization of OPD in hospitals to the out-patient sector.

The table of contents (in German) may be downloaded below.

Download Table of Content: Selbstbeteiligung. Internat. Vergleich und Implikationen für Österreich

Client: Austrian Federal Ministry for Social Security and Generations

Editor: ÖBIG (Austrian Health Institute)

Place of publication: Vienna

Year of publication: 2003

ISBN: 3-85159-057-0

Number of pages: 200 pages incl. annex, 52 tables, 73 figures

Reimbursement of expenses: Kostenlos

Out of print