Voluntary private health insurance demand by Portuguese seniors before the COVID‐19 pandemic

Aida Isabel Tavares

International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 2023, vol. 38, issue 2, 494-506

Abstract: Aims The Portuguese health system is mainly described as a National Health Service (NHS), but it also has some Bismarckian features. On top of these two layers of health insurance coverage, there is a market for voluntary private health insurance (VPHI). Usually, seniors are not eligible for this type of health insurance and this may serve as a complement or supplement to the NHS. The purpose of this work is to identify the main factors associated with holding a VPHI policy among seniors before the COVID‐19 pandemic. Material and Methods We use data collected by the National Health Survey of 2019/20 and estimate a multivariate logistic regression. Results The main findings show that VPHI may be bought by seniors as a facilitator to access health care, either specialised or dental care. While oral health is not covered by the NHS, specialist care is only available after referral by a gatekeeper and requires a long waiting time to be scheduled. Results show that people who had an appointment with a dentist or a specialist in the last 12 months are more likely to have a VPHI policy. Additionally, it was found that people benefiting from occupation‐based insurance schemes are less likely to buy private health insurance. Conclusion The current Portuguese health system organization based on different layers of health protection raises some issues concerning equity to health care access by seniors.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.3601

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:bla:ijhplm:v:38:y:2023:i:2:p:494-506

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0749-6753

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Health Planning and Management is currently edited by Calum Paton

More articles in International Journal of Health Planning and Management from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().