Hong Kong Med J 2014;20(Suppl 3):S8-10
Neuroeconomics of health care financing options: willingness to pay and save
H Leung, H Mak, M Leung, KL Leung, P Kwan, KS Wong
Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
1. Voluntary health care insurance plans and savings schemes are potential means of reforming the health care financing structure.
2. Willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-save are notions which may be explored by behavioural theories.
3. Willingness-to-pay may be higher in low-risk insurance plans and lower in high-risk plans.
4. Willingness-to-save may not necessarily be lower in longer saving plans but may be lower in high- amount saving plans.
5. Neuroeconomics revealed that the Prospect Theory may explain the skewing in willingness-to-pay, whereas the Hyperbolic Discounting Theory may explain factors determining willingness-to-save partially.
2. Willingness-to-pay and willingness-to-save are notions which may be explored by behavioural theories.
3. Willingness-to-pay may be higher in low-risk insurance plans and lower in high-risk plans.
4. Willingness-to-save may not necessarily be lower in longer saving plans but may be lower in high- amount saving plans.
5. Neuroeconomics revealed that the Prospect Theory may explain the skewing in willingness-to-pay, whereas the Hyperbolic Discounting Theory may explain factors determining willingness-to-save partially.