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Socioeconomic and Health Determinants of Health Care Utilization Among Elderly Europeans: A Semiparametric Assessment of Equity, Intensity and Responsiveness for Ten European Countries

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  • Jürgen Maurer

    (Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA))

Abstract

This paper investigates the interplay of socioeconomic and medical determinants of health care utilization among elderly Europeans from ten countries. Using novel strictly comparable cross-national data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), the study exploits recent semi- and nonparametric estimation methods to illustrate how individual socioeconomic status and health determine health care utilization in different institutional settings. Our flexible estimation method allows for the use of multiple health measures to adjust for individual differences in health care need without sacrificing cross-national comparability of the resulting estimates. Within countries, we find only a small, if any, socioeconomic gradient. Moreover, all health systems appear to be reasonably responsive to differences in care need. At the same time, we find considerable variation in treatment intensity across countries, which we cannot fully explain by differences in health care need.

Suggested Citation

  • Jürgen Maurer, 2007. "Socioeconomic and Health Determinants of Health Care Utilization Among Elderly Europeans: A Semiparametric Assessment of Equity, Intensity and Responsiveness for Ten European Countries," MEA discussion paper series 07144, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:mea:meawpa:07144
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Lambrelli D & O’Donnell O, 2009. "Why Does the Utilization of Pharmaceuticals Vary So Much Across Europe? Evidence from Micro Data on Older Europeans," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 09/06, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    2. Tavares, Lara Patrício & Zantomio, Francesca, 2017. "Inequity in healthcare use among older people after 2008: The case of southern European countries," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(10), pages 1063-1071.
    3. Jürgen Maurer, 2007. "Modelling socioeconomic and health determinants of health care use: A semiparametric approach," MEA discussion paper series 07145, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    4. Pulok, Mohammad Habibullah & Hajizadeh, Mohammad, 2022. "Equity in the use of physician services in Canada's universal health system: A longitudinal analysis of older adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    5. Jürgen Maurer, 2007. "Modelling socioeconomic and health determinants of health‐care use: a semiparametric approach," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(9), pages 967-979, September.

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