Abstract
We conducted unique discrete choice experiments on the healthcare funding system for older populations and examined several relevant attributes. The experiments, which comprised a sample of 1,112 individuals in Japan, focused on the need for public funding. We studied the valuation of several insurance attributes, namely, the share of public funding, income equity, intergenerational equity, and the local or national burden. This study elicited respondents’ preferences using a random parameter probit model and assessed the heterogeneity of choice responses using demographic, socioeconomic, and attitudes towards government bonds based on latent class responses. The results show that the public overall has a negative preference for an increase in public funding and positive preferences for an income-proportional burden, universal burden regardless of age, and an increase in the national government burden relative to the local burden. However, the latent class responded heterogeneously to insurance choices. For example, the latent segment comprising 23% of the total sample—the second-largest group consisting mainly of young males—preferred a greater increase in public funding.