Effects of health insurance on patient demand for physician services

Health Economics Review

Jerome Dugan¹ 

[1] Department of Health Services, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Box 357660, 1959 NE Pacific St Magnuson Health Sciences Center, Room H-680, 98195-7660, Seattle, WA, USA;

关键词: Healthcare management;    Chronic disease;    Health insurance;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13561-020-00291-y

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIn recent years, policymakers have sought to reduce health disparities between the insured and uninsured through a federal health insurance expansion policy; however, disparities continue to persist among the insured population. One potential explanation is that the use of healthcare services varies by the type of health insurance coverage due to differences in the design of coverage. The aim of this study is to examine whether health insurance coverage type is associated with the structure and use of healthcare services.MethodsThe nationally representative Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and multinomial logistic regression are used to estimate the effects of different types of health coverage on the combinations of routine and emergency care sought and received.ResultsThe multinomial logistic regression analysis for the overall sample revealed privately insured respondents reported higher use of routine care only p < 0.01 and lower use of emergency room care only (− 2.13%; p < 0.01) than the uninsured. The publicly insured reported similar trends for use of routine care only (17.93%; p < 0.01) as the privately insured, as compared to the uninsured. Both the privately and publicly insured reported higher use of a mixture of care; however, publicly insured were more likely to use a mixture of care (8.57%, p < 0.01).ConclusionThe results show that health insurance is associated with higher use of the physician services, but does not promote the use of cost-effective schedules of care among the publicly insured.

【 授权许可】

CC BY