Health insurance and use of alternative medicine in Mexico.
OBJECTIVE
I analyze the effect of coverage by health insurance on the use of alternative medicine such as folk healers and homeopaths, in particular if it complements or substitutes conventional services.


METHODS
Panel data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) is used to estimate bivariate probit models in order to explain the use of alternative medicine while allowing the determinant of interest, access to health insurance, to be an endogenous factor.


RESULTS
The findings indicate that households with insurance coverage less often use alternative medicine, and that the effect is much stronger among poor than among rich households.


CONCLUSIONS
Poor households substitute away from traditional medicine towards conventional medicine.
van Gameren
Edwin
E
El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, Camino al Ajusco 20, Pedregal de Santa Teresa, México, D.F., C.P. 10740, Mexico. egameren@colmex.mx
D000368:Aged; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico; D008875:Middle Aged; D017059:Models, Econometric; D011203:Poverty