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The evolution of inequity in the access to health care in Spain: 1987-2001

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  • Pilar García Gómez
  • Ángel López

Abstract

This paper reports an analysis of the evolution of equity in access to health care in Spain over the period 1987-2001, a time span covering the development of the modern Spanish National Health System. Our measures of access are the probabilities of visiting a doctor, using emergency services and being hospitalised. For these three measures we obtain indices of horizontal inequity from microeconometric models of utilization that exploit the individual information in the Spanish National Health Surveys of 1987 and 2001. We find that by 2001 the system has improved in the sense that differences in income no longer lead to different access given the same level of need. However, the tenure of private health insurance leads to differences in access given the same level of need, and its contribution to inequity has increased over time, both because insurance is more concentrated among the rich and because the elasticity of utilization for the three services has increased too.

Suggested Citation

  • Pilar García Gómez & Ángel López, 2004. "The evolution of inequity in the access to health care in Spain: 1987-2001," Working Papers, Research Center on Health and Economics 756, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Oct 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:upf:upfses:756
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ángel López-Nicolás & Marcos Vera-Hernández, 2002. "Are tax subsidies for private medical insurance self-financing? Evidence from a microsimulation model for outpatient and inpatient episodes," Economics Working Papers 632, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, revised Oct 2004.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health care utilization; health insurance; equity; Spain;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models

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