TY  - BOOK
AU  - Gross, Tal, Layton, Timothy J. and Prinz, Daniel
TI  - The liquidity sensitivity of healthcare consumption: Evidence from social security payments
CY  - The American Economic Review: Insights  
KW  - Healthcare consumption, Social security
N2  - Insurance is typically viewed as a mechanism for transferring resources from good to bad states. However, insurance may also transfer resources from high-liquidity periods to low-liquidity periods. We test for this type of transfer from health insurance by studying the distribution of Social Security checks among Medicare recipients. When Social Security checks are distributed, prescription fills increase by 6–12 percent among recipients who pay small copayments. We find no such pattern among recipients who face no copayments. The results demonstrate that more complete insurance allows recipients to consume healthcare when they need it rather than only when they have cash. – Reproduced
BR  - AR127739
ER  -