H. Wang, Jack C. Yue, Ting-Chung Chang, Ting‐Chen Chang
{"title":"Morbidity compression and cancer insurance","authors":"H. Wang, Jack C. Yue, Ting-Chung Chang, Ting‐Chen Chang","doi":"10.1017/dem.2023.11","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Cancer is among the leading causes of death in the world, with about 10 million deaths, one in every six deaths, related to cancer in 2020. In Taiwan, cancer insurance is the most popular commercial health product. However, the loss ratio of cancer products increases with policy year and exceeds 100% in many insurance companies. In addition, almost all cancer benefits are significantly limited in order to avoid financial insolvency. In this study, we evaluate the risk of cancer insurance from the perspective of morbidity compression. We use the data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. Also, we apply the standardized mortality ratio and the Lee-Carter model to estimate the trend of cancer-related values. We find that cancer incidence rates gradually increase with time, which indicates that the assumption of morbidity compression is violated. On the other hand, the mortality rates of cancer patients decrease significantly annually. Thus, length of life with cancer increases, and so does the cancer insurance premium. We suggest that cancer insurance covers only the first five years of medical expenditure after the insured is diagnosed with cancer.","PeriodicalId":43286,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Demographic Economics","volume":"89 1","pages":"465 - 482"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Demographic Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/dem.2023.11","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"DEMOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract Cancer is among the leading causes of death in the world, with about 10 million deaths, one in every six deaths, related to cancer in 2020. In Taiwan, cancer insurance is the most popular commercial health product. However, the loss ratio of cancer products increases with policy year and exceeds 100% in many insurance companies. In addition, almost all cancer benefits are significantly limited in order to avoid financial insolvency. In this study, we evaluate the risk of cancer insurance from the perspective of morbidity compression. We use the data from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. Also, we apply the standardized mortality ratio and the Lee-Carter model to estimate the trend of cancer-related values. We find that cancer incidence rates gradually increase with time, which indicates that the assumption of morbidity compression is violated. On the other hand, the mortality rates of cancer patients decrease significantly annually. Thus, length of life with cancer increases, and so does the cancer insurance premium. We suggest that cancer insurance covers only the first five years of medical expenditure after the insured is diagnosed with cancer.
期刊介绍:
Demographic variables such as fertility, mortality, migration and family structures notably respond to economic incentives and in turn affect the economic development of societies. Journal of Demographic Economics welcomes both empirical and theoretical papers on issues relevant to Demographic Economics with a preference for combining abstract economic or demographic models together with data to highlight major mechanisms. The journal was first published in 1929 as Bulletin de l’Institut des Sciences Economiques. It later became known as Louvain Economic Review, and continued till 2014 to publish under this title. In 2015, it moved to Cambridge University Press, increased its international character and changed its focus exclusively to demographic economics.