Do financial barriers to access to primary health care increase the risk of poor health? Longitudinal evidence from New Zealand

Santosh Jatrana and Peter Crampton

Social Science & Medicine, 2021, vol. 288, issue C

Abstract: Primary health care policies in New Zealand, as in many countries, have focused on reducing barriers to access. Financial barriers to obtaining timely health care, while not the only important barriers, are amongst the most important, and are amenable to policy reforms. There is little robust empirical evidence about the extent to which cost related barriers are associated with adverse health outcomes. Past evidence is limited to cross-sectional studies of selected groups, selected primary health care services, and to cross-sectional studies that are susceptible to unmeasured confounding bias. Using fixed effects regression modelling and data from 17,363 participants with at least two observations in three waves (2004–05, 2006–07, 2008–09) of the SoFIE-Health panel data, this study examines the impact of financial barriers to access to primary health care (general practitioner and dentist) on health status using a longitudinal national panel study of adult New Zealanders.

Keywords: Primary health care; Health; Cost-related barriers; Longitudinal; Fixed effects; New Zealand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113255

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