Effect of Type of Insurance and Income on Waiting Time for Outpatient Care

Kathrin Roll, Tom Stargardt () and Jonas Schreyögg
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Kathrin Roll: 1] Hamburg Center for Health Economics, Department for Health Care Management and Health Economics University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.[2] Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany.

The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, 2012, vol. 37, issue 4, 609-632

Abstract: This paper analyses the impact of type of insurance, income and reason for appointment on waiting time for an appointment and waiting time in the physician's practice in the outpatient sector. Data was obtained from a German patient survey conducted between 2007 and 2009. We differentiated between general practitioner (GP) and specialist and controlled for socioeconomic, structural and institutional characteristics as well as interactions between type of insurance and control variables. Our results reveal that private health insurance plays a significant role in faster access to care at GP and specialist practices. Access to care is also highly influenced by the reason for an appointment. We also found that increased income had a negative effect on waiting time in practices and on waiting time for an appointment in GP practices. Whether inequalities in access to health care also impact overall quality of treatment needs to be investigated in future research.

Date: 2012
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Working Paper: Effect of type of insurance and income on waiting time for outpatient care (2011)
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