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Human Capital and the Engel Curve for Health Insurance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

Douglas A. Chiriboga  and
Cleve E. Willis
Douglas A. Chiriboga
Affiliation:
Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Cleve E. Willis
Affiliation:
Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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Extract

Insurance is generally found whenever uncertainty presents itself in economic activity. Adaptation to the existence of uncertainty of treatment and incidence of illness had by 1970 produced 77 percent and 57 percent of the individuals in the United States purchasing hospital and doctor visit insurance, respectively. Corresponding figures for the rural farm population were approximately 10 percent lower in each category. The recognition that a substantial proportion of individuals have failed to protect themselves voluntarily from the financial consequences of illness has lead researchers to develop models of decision-making which explain individual reluctance to protect from adverse consequences in the event of illness.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Northeastern Agricultural Economics Council , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , April 1977 , pp. 59 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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Footnotes

*

Massachusetts Experiment Station Paper No. 2114. The paper also emanates from the work of Regional Project NE-77.

References

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