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International Journal for Equity in Health
Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health 1/2017

Open Access 01-12-2017 | Research

Financial crisis and income-related inequalities in the universal provision of a public service: the case of healthcare in Spain

Authors: Ignacio Abásolo, Marc Saez, Guillem López-Casasnovas

Published in: International Journal for Equity in Health | Issue 1/2017

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Abstract

Background

The objective of this paper is to analyse whether the recent recession has altered health care utilisation patterns of different income groups in Spain.

Methods

Based on information concerning individuals ‘income and health care use, along with health need indicators and demographic characteristics (provided by the Spanish National Health Surveys from 2006/07 and 2011/12), econometric models are estimated in two parts (mixed logistic regressions and truncated negative binominal regressions) for each of the public health services studied (family doctor appointments, appointments with specialists, hospitalisations, emergencies and prescription drug use).

Results

The results show that the principle of universal access to public health provision does not in fact prevent a financial crisis from affecting certain income groups more than others in their utilisation of public health services.

Conclusions

Specifically, in relative terms the recession has been more detrimental to low-income groups in the cases of specialist appointments and hospitalisations, whereas it has worked to their advantage in the cases of emergency services and family doctor appointments.
Footnotes
1
Which amounted to 76.77% of the individuals who used primary health care in SNHS-2006 and 79.13% in SNHS-2011-2012, 82.48% in SNHS-2006 and 82.08% in SNHS-2011-2012 for specialized health care, 67.95% in SNHS-2006 and 65.87% in SNHS-2011-2012 for emergency room services, and for hospitalizations 87.57% in SNHS-2006 and 78.56% in SNHS-2011-2012.
 
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Metadata
Title
Financial crisis and income-related inequalities in the universal provision of a public service: the case of healthcare in Spain
Authors
Ignacio Abásolo
Marc Saez
Guillem López-Casasnovas
Publication date
01-12-2017
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
International Journal for Equity in Health / Issue 1/2017
Electronic ISSN: 1475-9276
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-017-0630-y

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