Do people with private health insurance attach a higher value to health than those without insurance? Results from an EQ-5D-5 L valuation study in Ireland

BACKGROUND

Differences in healthcare use could relate to differences in the values assigned health as well as to differences in access. We sought to establish whether there existed evidence of differences in values assigned health states between individuals with and without insurance in Ireland.

METHODS

Using the EuroQol Valuation Technology (EQ-VT), EQ-5D-5 L valuation tasks were administered to a sample of 1160 residents of Ireland in 2015/16. Censored panel regression analyses were used to estimate the values assigned health states. Private insurance was entered among a range of covariates to explain health preferences as a binary variable. A range of confirmatory analyses were undertaken.

RESULTS

In the primary analysis, possession of private health insurance was not a significant determinant of health preferences. Across a range of confirmatory analyses limited evidence of any difference in values related to health insurance emerged.

CONCLUSIONS

Insurance status has been shown to be a significant determinant of healthcare utilization in Ireland after need has been controlled for. Our analysis provides no compelling evidence that meaningful differences exist in the values accorded health between those with and without health insurance.

A French Value Set for the EQ-5D-5L

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to develop a French value set for the EQ-5D-5L, for academic and clinical research, and for regulatory requirements for price-setting of drugs and medical devices.

METHOD

This study used the standardized valuation protocol developed by EuroQol, using computer-assisted personal interview software. A representative sample of 1048 French residents were interviewed by a market research company, under the supervision of the research team. Health states were valued using composite time trade-off and a discrete choice experiment. Modeling was used to create values for the 3125 possible health states. The composite time trade-off data were modeled using a Tobit model with censored observations at -1 and correcting for heteroscedasticity. A conditional logit model was used for the discrete choice results, and both models were combined using a hybrid model. An adjusted hybrid model was tested to correct for imbalance in the sample on age and sex compared with the general population. A comparison with the 3-level (3L) value set was performed.

RESULTS

The adjusted model was preferred to comply with the representativeness of the general population. It provided a value set for which all coefficients were logically consistent. Values ranged from - 0.525 to 1. The distribution of values presented a shift towards higher values versus the 3L value set. Ranking of dimensions changed. Pain and discomfort and mobility were the dimensions with the highest potential for disutility compared with mobility and self-care for the 3L instrument.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides a value set based on societal preferences of the French population, using an improved descriptive instrument of health-related quality-of-life health states. It will contribute to improve the quality of cost-effectiveness analysis in the French context and help stimulate disease-specific quality-of-life references for academic-, institutional-, and industry-promoted studies.

Utility Values for Health States in Ireland: A Value Set for the EQ-5D-5L

OBJECTIVE

Our objective was to develop a value set based on Irish utility values for the EuroQol 5-Dimension, 5-Level instrument (EQ-5D-5L).

METHODS

The research design and data collection followed a protocol developed by the EuroQol Group. The EuroQol Valuation Technology (EQ-VT) software was administered using computer-assisted personal interviews to a representative sample of adults resident in Ireland between 2015 and 2016. Utility values were elicited using two stated-preference techniques: time trade-off (TTO) and discrete-choice experiment (DCE). Each respondent completed a valuation exercise in which the EQ-VT system randomly selected one block of ten TTO questions from ten blocks relating to a possible 86 health states. One block of seven DCE pairs from 28 blocks of a possible 196 pairs of health states were randomly selected to accompany this. The relationship between utility values and health states was analysed using a hybrid regression model that combined data from the TTO and DCE techniques and expressed these as a function of the health state presented to the individual. This model estimated coefficients for 20 dummy variables that characterised each health state in the EQ-5D-5L framework, with the lowest level of severity providing the reference category in each domain. The relationship between weighted and unweighted TTO and DCE analyses of main effects was analysed separately.

RESULTS

Comparison of weighted and unweighted models revealed no substantive differences in results with respect to either DCE or TTO models. The unweighted hybrid model produced estimated effects, the ordering of which was intuitively consistent within each domain: lower levels of health were associated with lower utility values. Differences were evident between domains with respect to valuations; the disutility associated with conditions related to anxiety/depression and pain/discomfort was higher than for other domains. The decrement in utility associated with movement from the highest to the lowest level of health was 0.344 for mobility, 0.287 for self-care, 0.187 for usual activities, 0.510 for pain/discomfort and 0.646 for anxiety/depression.

DISCUSSION

The results present the first value set based on the EQ-5D-5L framework for a representative sample of residents in Ireland. The set reveals a higher decrement in utility associated with anxiety/depression than with other domains of health. Caution is warranted in comparisons with other value sets. That said, those in England, the Netherlands, Uruguay and China reveal that, whereas Irish values are broadly consistent with respect to mobility, self-care and usual activities, residents of Ireland attach a higher decrement to pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression than do other populations.

Euthanasia, religiosity and the valuation of health states: results from an Irish EQ5D5L valuation study and their implications for anchor values

Background

The Quality Adjusted Life Year influences the allocation of significant amounts of healthcare resources. Despite this surprisingly little research effort has been devoted to analysing how beliefs and attitudes to hastening death influence preferences for health states anchored at “dead” and “perfect health”. In this paper we examine how, inter alia, adherence to particular religious beliefs (religiosity) influences attitudes to euthanasia and how, inter alia, attitudes to euthanasia influences the willingness to assign worse than dead (WTD) values to health states using data collected as part of the Irish EQ5D5L valuation study.

Methods

A sample of 160 respondents each supplied 10 composite time trade-off valuations and information on religiosity and attitudes to euthanasia as part of a larger national survey. Data were analysed using a recursive bivariate probit model in which attitudes to euthanasia and willingness to assign WTD values were analysed jointly as functions of a range of covariates.

Results

Religiosity was a significant determinant of attitudes to euthanasia and attitudes to euthanasia were a significant determinant of the likelihood of assigning WTD values. A significant negative correlation in errors between the two probit models was observed indicative of support for the hypothesis of endogeneity between attitudes to euthanasia and readiness to assign WTD values.

Conclusion

In Ireland attitudes and beliefs play an important role in understanding health state preferences. Beyond Ireland this may have implications for: the construction of representative samples; understanding the values accorded health states and; the frequency with which value sets must be updated.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12955-018-0985-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.