{"title":"Estimating price elasticities of demand for pain relief drugs: evidence from Medicare Part D.","authors":"Aparna Soni","doi":"10.1007/s10754-024-09382-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Overdose deaths from prescription opioids remain elevated, and policymakers seek solutions to curb opioid misuse. Recent proposals call for price-based solutions, such as opioid taxes and removal of opioids from insurance formularies. However, there is limited evidence on how opioid consumption responds to price stimuli. This study addresses that gap by estimating the effects of prices on the utilization of opioids, as well as other prescription painkillers. I use nationally representative individual-level data on prescription drug purchases and exploit the introduction of Medicare Part D in 2006 as an exogenous change in out-of-pocket drug prices. I find that new users have a relatively high price elasticity of demand for prescription opioids, and that consumers treat over-the-counter painkillers as substitutes for prescription painkillers. My results suggest that increasing out-of-pocket prices of opioids, through formulary design or taxes, may be effective in reducing new opioid use.</p>","PeriodicalId":44403,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health Economics and Management","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Health Economics and Management","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10754-024-09382-3","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/8/2 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Overdose deaths from prescription opioids remain elevated, and policymakers seek solutions to curb opioid misuse. Recent proposals call for price-based solutions, such as opioid taxes and removal of opioids from insurance formularies. However, there is limited evidence on how opioid consumption responds to price stimuli. This study addresses that gap by estimating the effects of prices on the utilization of opioids, as well as other prescription painkillers. I use nationally representative individual-level data on prescription drug purchases and exploit the introduction of Medicare Part D in 2006 as an exogenous change in out-of-pocket drug prices. I find that new users have a relatively high price elasticity of demand for prescription opioids, and that consumers treat over-the-counter painkillers as substitutes for prescription painkillers. My results suggest that increasing out-of-pocket prices of opioids, through formulary design or taxes, may be effective in reducing new opioid use.
处方阿片类药物过量导致的死亡人数仍然居高不下，政策制定者正在寻求遏制阿片类药物滥用的解决方案。最近的提案呼吁采取基于价格的解决方案，如征收阿片类药物税和将阿片类药物从保险目录中删除。然而，关于阿片类药物消费如何对价格刺激做出反应的证据却很有限。本研究通过估算价格对阿片类药物以及其他处方止痛药使用的影响，弥补了这一空白。我使用了具有全国代表性的个人处方药购买数据，并利用 2006 年医疗保险 D 部分的推出作为自付药价的外生变化。我发现，新用户对处方阿片类药物的需求价格弹性相对较高，消费者将非处方止痛药视为处方止痛药的替代品。我的研究结果表明，通过处方设计或税收来提高阿片类药物的自付价格，可能会有效减少阿片类药物的新增使用。
期刊介绍：
The focus of the International Journal of Health Economics and Management is on health care systems and on the behavior of consumers, patients, and providers of such services. The links among management, public policy, payment, and performance are core topics of the relaunched journal. The demand for health care and its cost remain central concerns. Even as medical innovation allows providers to improve the lives of their patients, questions remain about how to efficiently deliver health care services, how to pay for it, and who should pay for it. These are central questions facing innovators, providers, and payers in the public and private sectors. One key to answering these questions is to understand how people choose among alternative arrangements, either in markets or through the political process. The choices made by healthcare managers concerning the organization and production of that care are also crucial. There is an important connection between the management of a health care system and its economic performance. The primary audience for this journal will be health economists and researchers in health management, along with the larger group of health services researchers. In addition, research and policy analysis reported in the journal should be of interest to health care providers, managers and policymakers, who need to know about the pressures facing insurers and governments, with consequences for regulation and mandates. The editors of the journal encourage submissions that analyze the behavior and interaction of the actors in health care, viz. consumers, providers, insurers, and governments. Preference will be given to contributions that combine theoretical with empirical work, evaluate conflicting findings, present new information, or compare experiences between countries and jurisdictions. In addition to conventional research articles, the journal will include specific subsections for shorter concise research findings and cont ributions to management and policy that provide important descriptive data or arguments about what policies follow from research findings. The composition of the editorial board is designed to cover the range of interest among economics and management researchers.Officially cited as: Int J Health Econ ManagFrom 2001 to 2014 the journal was published as International Journal of Health Care Finance and Economics. (Articles published in Vol. 1-14 officially cited as: Int J Health Care Finance Econ)
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