The Burden of Deciding for Yourself: The Disutility Caused by Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Spending

11 Indiana Health Law Review 609, Symposium, 2014

Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 14-30

27 Pages Posted: 6 Nov 2014 Last revised: 22 Jan 2015

See all articles by Christopher T. Robertson

Christopher T. Robertson

Boston University

David V. Yokum

University of Arizona - James E. Rogers College of Law; University of Arizona - College of Science

Date Written: November 3, 2014

Abstract

As part of a larger "consumer-directed healthcare movement," cost-sharing mechanisms, such as copays and deductibles, cause patients to pay out of pocket for a portion of the costs of the healthcare they consume. Cost sharing is intended to reduce costs by changing consumption behavior, and it has been shown to be an effective though incomplete solution to the problem of unsustainable cost growth. It is controversial nonetheless. This Essay distinguishes three different normative problems with cost sharing (including underinsurance, deterrence of high-value care, and a tax on sickness), which can all be fixed through more precision in the design of cost-sharing mechanisms.

This Essay provides the first sustained investigation of a fourth problem, "the decisional burden." By setting aside the three foregoing problems and then carefully specifying two alternative counterfactual situations in which cost-sharing obligations are removed, the analyst can precisely identify the remaining causal impacts of cost sharing, namely: a subjective disutility experienced by patients when navigating a difficult, and potentially unwanted, choice amongst a complex set of options, requiring tradeoffs between health and wealth. Several concepts from the behavioral sciences -- cognitive capacity, choice overload, sunk costs, and regret -- shed light on this problem. This Essay reviews select portions of that literature and concludes that the decisional burden is a real disadvantage of using patient cost sharing as a mechanism for rationing healthcare. Advocates of cost sharing must bite this bullet.

Keywords: Cost-sharing, behavioral economics, judgment and decision making, health insurance, healthcare, rationing

JEL Classification: I1

Suggested Citation

Robertson, Christopher T. and Yokum, David V., The Burden of Deciding for Yourself: The Disutility Caused by Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Spending (November 3, 2014). 11 Indiana Health Law Review 609, Symposium, 2014, Arizona Legal Studies Discussion Paper No. 14-30, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2518588

Christopher T. Robertson (Contact Author)

Boston University ( email )

765 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
United States
6179100649 (Phone)
02215 (Fax)

David V. Yokum

University of Arizona - James E. Rogers College of Law ( email )

P.O. Box 210176
Tucson, AZ 85721-0176
United States

University of Arizona - College of Science ( email )

1040 E. Fourth Street
Tucson, AZ 85721-0077
United States

0 References

    0 Citations

      Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

      Paper statistics

      Downloads
      136
      Abstract Views
      1,136
      Rank
      438,829
      PlumX Metrics