TY  - JOUR
AU  - Gruber,Jonathan
AU  - Hendren,Nathaniel
AU  - Townsend,Robert
TI  - Demand and Reimbursement Effects of Healthcare Reform: Health Care Utilization and Infant Mortality in Thailand
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 17739
PY  - 2012
Y2  - January 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17739
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17739.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jonathan Gruber
MIT Department of Economics
E52-355
50 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02142-1347
Tel: 617/253-8892
Fax: 617/253-1330
E-Mail: gruberj@mit.edu

Nathaniel Hendren
Harvard University
Department of Economics
Littauer Center Room 235
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 773/344-8990
E-Mail: nhendren@gmail.com

Robert Townsend
Department of Economics
MIT
50 Memorial Drive, E52-252c
Cambridge, MA 02142
Tel: 617/452-3722
Fax: 617/253-1330
E-Mail: rtownsen@mit.edu
AB  - The Thai 30 Baht program was one of the largest health system reforms ever undertaken by a low-middle income country. In addition to lowering the cost of care for the previously uninsured in public facilities, it also entailed a fourfold increase in funding provided to hospitals to care for the poorest 30% of the population (who were already publicly insured). For the previously uninsured, we find that the 30 Baht program led to increased health care utilization, as well as a shift from private to public sources of care. But, we find a larger increase for the poor who were previously publicly insured, especially amongst infants and women of childbearing age. Using vital statistics records, we find that the increased access to healthcare by the publicly insured poor led to a reduction in their infant mortality of at least 6.5 per 1,000 births. This suggests significant improvements in infant mortality rates can be achieved through increased access to healthcare services for the poor and marginalized groups.
ER  -