Abstract
In an era when resources are increasingly directed toward medical care, understanding the factors that influence demand takes on greater importance. Most work in this area (see, for example, Newhouse and Phelps, 1974; Hyman, 1971; Rosett and Huang, 1973; Newhouse, 1981) is directed to understanding the role of personal income and health insurance on demand, with emphasis on the dimensions of insurance. The recent Health Insurance Study conducted by the Rand Corporation focused on measuring responsiveness to various coinsurance rates — the partial payment by the consumer. Other recent work has addressed the value of time, length of wait, and demand for medical care. Equity issues are implicitly or explicitly raised by many of these studies. For example, the Health Insurance Study suggests that persons with low incomes decrease their medical care usage more than higher-income individuals when coinsurance is imposed.
The World Bank
The research reported in this paper was supported in part through funds granted to the Institute for Research on Poverty by the Department of Health and Human Services pursuant to the provisions of Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.
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© 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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van der Gaag, J., Wolfe, B.L. (1991). Estimating demand for medical care: health as a critical factor for adults and children. In: Duru, G., Paelinck, J.H.P. (eds) Econometrics of Health Care. Advanced Studies in Theoretical and Applied Econometrics, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2051-4_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2051-4_3
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