[What explains the growth of national insurance expenditure for primary health care?].
BACKGROUND
Fee-for-item payments are the main source of remuneration for primary care physicians in Norway. Physicians receive a major part of these payments from the National Insurance Administration. The present study describes the development in the National Insurance Administration expenditure for primary physician services in Norway from 1990 to 2000.


METHODS
The analyses were performed on accounting data from the National Insurance Administration and data on the number of physician per 10,000 population from Statistics Norway.


RESULTS
From 1990 to 2000, expenditure increased by 84%, from NOK 863.8 million to NOK 1.58 billion. Our main finding is that a substantial part of this increase can be explained by increases in the number of primary care physicians, population size, and the level of fees.


CONCLUSIONS
One interpretation of our findings is that National Insurance Administration expenditure on primary physician services to some extent can be controlled by regulating the number of physicians practicing with reimbursement from the National Insurance Administration and the level of fees.
Seksjon for samfunnsodontologi Det odontologiske fakultet Universitetet i Oslo Postboks 1052 Blindern 0316 Oslo. josteing@odont.uio.no
Jostein
J
Grytten
Irene
I
Skau
D018588:Fee-for-Service Plans / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005251:Fees, Medical; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000191:economics*; D009664:Norway; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000191:economics* / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms