The impact of accessibility on the use of specialist health care in Norway.
The aim of this study is to explore to what extent the policy goal of allocating health care according to medical need is fulfilled in Norway. Hence, we are interested in studying the impact of a person's health relative to the impact of access to specialist care. We distinguish between services provided by public hospitals and services provided by private specialists financed by the National Insurance Scheme. While a person's self-assessed health plays a major role in the utilization of hospitals, we find no significant effect of this variable on the utilization of private specialists. The accessibility indices for specialist care have significant effects on the utilization of private specialists, but not on hospital visits and inpatient stays. The challenge to policy makers is to consider measures that bring the utilization of publicly funded private specialists in accordance with national health policy.
Iversen
Tor
T
Health Economics Research Programme, University of Oslo (HERO), Center for Health Administration, N-0027 Oslo, Norway. tor.iversen@samfunnsmed.uio.no
Kopperud
Gry Stine
GS
D003657:Decision Making; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000458:organization & administration; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008511:Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009313:National Health Programs; D009664:Norway; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013038:Specialization