A comparison of the health status and health care utilisation patterns between foreigners and the national population in Spain: new evidence from the Spanish National Health Survey

C Hernández Quevedo and Dolores Jiménez Rubio
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Cristina Hernández-Quevedo ()

Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers from HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York

Abstract: The reduction of inequalities in health and in the access to health services is one of the main objectives in any health care system. Various studies have analysed the existence of inequalities in health and in the use of health care for the Spanish population. However, the empirical evidence for the immigrant collective on this issue is as yet insufficient. This working paper aims to provide evidence on inequalities in health and in the access to health services for the immigrant population living in Spain, relative to that of the autochthonous population, by using the 2003 and 2006 Spanish National Health Survey. After using a pooled ordered probit for a measure of self-assessed health and pooled probit models for several utilisation variables, our results show that there are different patterns in health status and utilisation of health care between nationals and immigrants in Spain. Immigrants report better levels of health status than Spaniards, although they face barriers of entry to health care services. Health policies should focus on reducing legal, cultural and administrative barriers to access health services.

Keywords: health care utilisation; health limitations; inequalities; immigrants; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-hea and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: A comparison of the health status and health care utilization patterns between foreigners and the national population in Spain: New evidence from the Spanish National Health Survey (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:yor:hectdg:08/22

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