Effects of public and private health insurance on medical service utilization in the National Health Insurance System: National panel study in the Republic of Korea

摘要

BackgroundMoral hazard or utilization hazard refers to the phenomenon during which patients overuse medical services under national health insurance (NHI) because the services are free or the patients are required to pay only a portion of the utilization costs. The aim of this study is to investigate how NHI and private health insurance (PHI) systems influence increases in health care utilization rates.