title: Expanding health insurance to increase health care utilization: will it have different effects in rural vs. urban areas?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study investigates the importance of medical fee and distance to health care provider on individual's decision to seek care in developing countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  The estimation method used a mixed logit model applied to data from the third wave of the Indonesian family life survey (2000). The key variables of interest include medical fee and distance to different types of health care provider and individual characteristic variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Urban dweller's decision to choose health care providers are sensitive to the monetary cost of medical care as measured by medical fee but they are not sensitive to distance. For those who reside in rural area, they are sensitive to the non-medical component cost of care as measured by travel distance but they are not sensitive to medical fee.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As a result of those findings, policy makers should consider different sets of policy instruments when attempting to expand health service's usage in urban and rural areas of Indonesia. To increase access in urban areas, we recommend expansion of health insurance coverage in order to lower out-of-pocket medical expenditures. As for rural areas, expansion of medical infrastructures to reduce commuting distance and costs will be needed to increase utilization.
authors.affiliation: Health Care Administration Department, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90840, USA. eerlyana@csulb.edu
authors.forename: Erlyana
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Erlyana
authors.forename: Kannika Kampanya
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Damrongplasit
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Melnick
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D007348:Insurance, Health; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D012424:Rural Population; D014505:Urban Population; D055815:Young Adult