Considering the weak role of public health insurance in South Korea, this study identified the impact of older consumers' coping resources such as income and education, well-being (e. g., successful aging and quality of life), and psychological and economic aspects affecting potential stressors on their purchasing of private health insurance (PHI) based on proactive coping theory. From the sixth wave of the 2016 Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA), a sample of 1,224 Korean older adults aged above 65 years was used; binary logistic regression was conducted to identify the association of PHI and purchase decision factors, first separately for two groups (lower/higher use of health care services), and then for the total group. The results showed that older adults with higher levels of well-being, especially with a higher successful aging index and coping resources such as income are more likely to purchase PHI in all three groups.
Keywords: South Korea; older consumer; private health insurance; proactive coping; quality of life; successful aging.