@article{BanerjeeFinkelsteinHannaetal., author = {Banerjee, Abhijiit and Finkelstein, Amy and Hanna, Rema and Olken, Benjamin A. and Ornaghi, Arianna and Sumarto, Sudarno}, title = {The Challenges of Universal Health Insurance in Developing Countries: Experimental Evidence from Indonesia's National Health Insurance}, series = {American Economic Review}, volume = {111}, journal = {American Economic Review}, number = {9}, doi = {10.1257/aer.20200523}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-40802}, pages = {3035 -- 3063}, abstract = {To investigate barriers to universal health insurance in developing countries, we designed a randomized experiment involving about 6,000 households in Indonesia who are subject to a government health insurance program with a weakly enforced mandate. Time-limited subsidies increased enrollment and attracted lower-cost enrollees, in part by reducing the strategic timing of enrollment to correspond with health needs. Registration assistance also increased enrollment, but increased attempted enrollment much more, as over one-half of households who attempted to enroll did not successfully do so. These findings underscore how weak administrative capacity can create important challenges in developing countries for achieving widespread coverage.}, language = {en} }