 Socioeconomic inequalities in waiting times for planned and cancer surgery: Evidence from SpainLaia Bosque‐Mercader, Neus Carrilero, Anna García‐Altés, Guillem López‐Casasnovas and Luigi Siciliani Health Economics, 2023, vol. 32, issue 5, 1181-1201 Abstract: Waiting times act as a non‐price rationing mechanism to bring together the demand for and the supply of public healthcare services and ensure equal access independently of ability to pay. This study tests for the presence of socioeconomic inequalities in waiting times for ten publicly‐funded planned and cancer surgeries in Catalonia (Spain) in 2015–2019. Socioeconomic status (SES), measured by four categories (very low, low, middle, high), is based on co‐payment levels for medicines which depend on patient's income. Using administrative data, we estimate the association between SES and waiting times controlling for patient characteristics and hospital fixed effects. Compared to patients with low SES, patients with middle SES wait 2–6 fewer days for hip replacement, cataract surgery, and hysterectomy, and less than a day for breast cancer surgery. These inequalities arise within hospitals and are not explained by patient nor hospital characteristics. For some surgeries, the results also show that patients with higher SES are more likely to voluntarily exit the waiting list and have a lower probability of having a surgery canceled for medical reasons and dying while waiting. Date: 2023 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:32:y:2023:i:5:p:1181-1201 Access Statistics for this article Health Economics is currently edited by Alan Maynard, John Hutton and Andrew Jones More articles in Health Economics from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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