Preference for National Health Service Use and the Demand for Private Health Insurance in Spain

Joan Costa-Font and Montserrat Font-Vilalta
Additional contact information
Montserrat Font-Vilalta: Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, 2004, vol. 29, issue 4, 705-718

Abstract: In National Health Systems (“NHS”) the funding and provision of health care co-exists with a developing market for private (supplementary) health insurance. In this setting, interactions between the public and private sector are important and likely to influence the demand for private health insurance (“PHI”). This paper empirically examines the interactions between PHI and NHS use using a representative survey for Catalonia (Spain). Our findings show that PHI stands as a financial tool for accessing private health care in Spain. Use of NHS care and the demand for private health insurance are simultaneously determined. The individual take-up of PHI results from a lower use of primary and specialized NHS care. Furthermore, preferences for the NHS care are influenced by captivity towards the NHS care. The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance (2004) 29, 705–718. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0440.2004.00312.x

Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/gpp/journal/v29/n4/pdf/2500312a.pdf Link to full text PDF (application/pdf)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/gpp/journal/v29/n4/full/2500312a.html Link to full text HTML (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:gpprii:v:29:y:2004:i:4:p:705-718

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/finance/journal/41288/PS2

Access Statistics for this article

The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice is currently edited by Christophe Courbage

More articles in The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice from Palgrave Macmillan, The Geneva Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().