Effect of having private health insurance on the use of health care services: the case of Spain

Background: Several stakeholders have undertaken initiatives to propose solutions towards a more sustainable health system and Spain, as an example of a European country affected by austerity measures, is looking for ways to cut healthcare budgets. Methods: The aim of this paper is to study the effe...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Cantarero Prieto, David|||0000-0001-8082-0639, Pascual Sáez, Marta|||0000-0002-4697-5247, González Prieto, Noelia
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Cantabria (UC)
Repositorio:UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unican.es:10902/13448
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10902/13448
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Health care utilization
Matching techniques
ECHP
SNHS
EU-SILC
Descripción
Sumario:Background: Several stakeholders have undertaken initiatives to propose solutions towards a more sustainable health system and Spain, as an example of a European country affected by austerity measures, is looking for ways to cut healthcare budgets. Methods: The aim of this paper is to study the effect of private health insurance on health care utilization using the latest micro-data from the European Community Household Panel (ECHP), the Spanish National Health Survey (SNHS) and the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). We use matching techniques based on propensity score methods: single match, four matches, bias-adjustment and allowing for heteroskedasticity. Results: The results demonstrate that people with a private health insurance, use the public health system less than individuals without double health insurance coverage. Conclusions: Our conclusions are useful when policy makers design public-private partnership policies