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In this study, I examine the role of health insurance cover in
improving access to healthcare services and consequently its role
in improving health outcomes for dependent children. I utilize
differences in temporal variation of insurance cover for dependent
children and their cousins, within the same Indonesian household
to estimate the effect. By comparing dependent children of
different biological parents, living in the same household, this study
avoids potential confounders for healthcare demand, such as
health endowment due to nutrition and hygiene. I find that
dependent children of government employees have increased
access to health insurance. In terms of healthcare use, I find no
impact of insurance in providing access to preventive care as an
outpatient. Instead, insurance status positively impacted first time
and repeat visits to private facilities for curative care only. Insured
Kolukuluri, K. (2021). Healthcare children were 4.4 per cent more likely, than uninsured cousins, to
utilization and outcomes for access first-time curative care and make 63 per cent more repeat
visits as an outpatient. In contrast, for inpatient services, insured
insured dependent children: children sought care at public facilities. Insurance did not have a
evidence from Indonesia. positive impact on health outcomes for dependents. The results
are robust to an instrumental variable estimation, alongside
Empirical Economics, 1-33. household fixed effects, which addresses concerns on potential
endogeneity of insurance cover.
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