Public Provision and Demand for Health Services: A Case Study of Bicol

This study describes the distribution of health subsidies across income groups and the use of health facilities. The first part derives empirical results using a proposed methodology based on the Meerman procedure. The second employs various estimation procedures and provides econometric analyses of the factors behind the use of public facilities. The data set is culled from the 1978 Bicol Multipurpose Survey. The two parts of this study are seen to be actually related. The first part investigates how the utilization of facilities is distributed across income groups; the rationale for this view is that the distribution of bene?ts from health facilities is ultimately determined by the distribution of utilization or frequency of visits to the facilities. What determines this frequency is the concern of the second part. From the first part, one learns that income is not a barrier to access to public health care. Public facilities, in general, did not discriminate against the poor. The second part shows that costs -- whether money or time — did not deter the use of health facilities. Families are found to be responsive to the relative money prices of facilities. While most of the facilities are complements, some are clearly substitutes, e.g., the hilot and puericulture center. Health planners would thus have to continue figuring out how public facilities can establish themselves effectively in a competitive environment.