Copayments for doctor visits in Germany and the probability of visiting a physician - Evidence from a natural experiment
The German health care reform of 2004 imposes a charge of 10 Euro for the \ufb01rst visit to a doctor in each\nquarter of the year. At \ufb01rst glance, there is no inhibiting effect of this fee on utilization in the German\nSocio-Economic Panel. However, this study reveals that the true effect is diluted by a special characteristic\nof the fee. Exploiting random variation in the interview date, this study \ufb01nds a substantial effect of the new\nfee on the probability of visiting a physician. In addition, the identi\ufb01cation strategy makes it possible to\ndisentangle this effect from the in\ufb02uence of the contemporaneous increase of copayments for prescription\ndrugs.