Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Insurance Choice And The Demand For Prescription Drugs Among Individuals With Chronic Conditions, Chunyang Feng

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study explores insurance choice of the chronically ill non-elderly adults and their utilization and expenditures on prescription drugs. Discrete factor model is used to estimate an individual's probability of any drug use and the conditional level of utilization and associated out-of-pocket expenditures. Analyses on four subpopulation groups, i.e. hypertension, diabetes, asthma and depression, provide detailed insights into individuals' health insurance decision making and subsequent prescription drug filling behavior, given their health insurance status. The results indicate that only a few health risk factors are statistically significant in determining an individual's health insurance status, and that the direction of the …

The Effect Of Changes In Drug Benefit Design Among Individuals With Diabetes In Large Employer-Sponsored Insurance Plans, Ninee Shoua Yang

Wayne State University Dissertations

THE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN DRUG BENEFIT DESIGN AMONG INDIVIDUALS WITH DIABETES IN LARGE EMPLOYER-SPONSORED INSURANCE PLANS

By

NINEE SHOUA YANG

August 2011

Advisor: Dr. Allen C. Goodman

Major: Economics

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

With spending for prescription drugs rising so rapidly, employers and insurers are seeking different cost-cutting strategies to stem this tide. Given that prescription drugs have become an indispensable means to treat and manage chronic illnesses, the issues of affordability and trade-offs between medications and other health care services are important for chronically ill patients, particularly for patients with diabetes who typically have more than one comorbidity …