Perceptions of Health Care Use in Germany during the COVID-19 Pandemic

André Hajek, Freia De Bock, Lothar H. Wieler, Philipp Sprengholz, Benedikt Kretzler and Hans-Helmut König
Additional contact information
André Hajek: Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
Freia De Bock: Federal Centre of Health Education, 50825 Cologne, Germany
Lothar H. Wieler: Robert-Koch-Institute, 13353 Berlin, Germany
Philipp Sprengholz: Department of Health Communication, University of Erfurt, 99089 Erfurt, Germany
Benedikt Kretzler: Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
Hans-Helmut König: Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20246 Hamburg, Germany

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 24, 1-13

Abstract: This paper examined the determinants of perceived access to health care use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany using data from two waves (8 and 16) of the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO). Descriptive and regression analysis were used. In wave 8, we found that about 60% of the individuals rather disagreed about having had problems accessing medical care. Furthermore, 73% of the individuals rather disagreed to having experienced health deteriorations due to restrictions on the availability of medical care. Moreover, 85% of the individuals were rather optimistic about future access to healthcare services. Overall, slightly better past and future access to healthcare services has been reported in wave 16. Several determinants were identified in regression analysis. In conclusion, data suggest that perceived past and future access to healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic is reasonably good.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; access to health care; availability of medical care; postponed treatments; health care use; health services research; health care utilization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9351/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/24/9351/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:24:p:9351-:d:461786

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().