Explaining inequality in the use of public health care services: evidence from Spain.
The aim of this article is to identify those factors which produce differences in the use of public health care services among individuals whose medical needs are similar. The empirical analysis employs Spanish data for three separate years and obtains results for four types of medical attention: visits to a GP, visits to a specialist, visits to the emergency services and hospital inpatient days. The results show that the influence of demand factors upon the probability of consuming more medical attention than expected depends on the type of health care considered.In addition, the minimal impact of supply factors is demonstrated.
Urbanos-Garrido
R M
RM
Departamento de Hacienda Pública, Facultad de CC, Económicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain. urbanos@ccee.ucm.es
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008511:Medicine; D008875:Middle Aged; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012107:Research Design; D012935:Social Justice; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013030:Spain; D013038:Specialization; D013222:State Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*