During the COVID-19 pandemic, the state of West Virginia offered cash incentives to residents under 35 and a lottery for their older counterparts, in exchange for agreeing to be fully vaccinated.
A new
Health Affairs study, authored by researchers from
Tulane University, assessed the effectiveness of these programs. Its senior author,
Charles Stoecker, appearing on WTOP-FM, said that the $100 per person cash incentive resulted in a 12-point swing in vaccination rates young adults, and a smaller change for lottery-eligible residents.
Did West Virginia get “a bang for its buck?”
According to Stoecker, the state’s investment in the younger residents was, from an economic perspective, more costly and therefore less efficient. However, he suggested, state health officials at the time may have been likely to conclude that their investment was worth it from a public health perspective.
For more information, read the article,
The Impact Of Telemedicine On Utilization, Spending, And Quality, 2019–22