The Health Insurance Game – A Simulation Game and a Simulation of a Health Economic Experiment
摘要
Simulation games are applied in a lot of different areas. We investigate for the Health Insurance Game, an economic simulation, how students evaluate this simulation (1), whether students learn economic concepts when playing this simulation (2), whether different roles show different progress (3) and whether we see the results expected by economic theory (4). Students are quite satisfied with the game. By playing and debriefing the Health Insurance Game students can significantly improve their knowledge on health insurance markets. A significant difference in the learning effect between different roles in the game cannot be observed. We find a significant difference in risk scores between insured and not insured consumers in the expected direction in two of three scenarios, for which health economic theory does expect it. Overall, we come to the conclusion that students learn about health insurance markets when playing the HIG and that the HIG represents in a simplified way real effects of health economics. We found these results although the sample size is relatively small. Results may become even clearer when collecting more data from more courses.