Equity in the Use of Physician Visits in OECD Countries

This paper uses methods proposed by Wagstaff and Van Doorslaer (2000) to generate new international comparative evidence for 1996 on the degree of horizontal equity achieved in health care utilisation in 14 OECD countries. The index of horizontal inequity used measures deviations in the degree to which the use of doctor visits is distributed according to need. The data for the 12 European Union member states are taken from the third wave of the European Community Household Panel, the data for Canada are from the second wave National Population Health Survey and the US data stem from the first wave of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. We find that in all countries physician visits tend to be significantly more concentrated among the worse-off. After standardising for need differences across the income distribution, significant horizontal inequity in total physician visits emerges in only four of the countries studied: Portugal, the United States, Austria and Greece…

Measuring Up: Improving Health System Performance in OECD Countries

Equity in the Use of Physician Visits in OECD Countries

Has Equal Treatment for Equal Need Been Achieved?