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Health policy and horizontal inequities of health-care utilization in Australia: 1983--2005

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  • Mohammad Hajizadeh
  • Luke Brian Connelly
  • James Robert Gerard Butler

Abstract

We used five National Health Surveys (NHSs) in order to measure horizontal inequity (equal health care for equal need) in health-care utilization in Australia over five time points from 1983 to 2005. The direct standardization method was used to estimate the horizontal inequity indices for six measures of health-care utilization. The results suggest that the distributions of General Practitioner (GP) services and any physician visits in Australia were generally pro-poor, whereas the distributions of specialist visits, dentist visits and any ambulatory visits were pro-rich. The computed indices demonstrate that the introduction of Medicare in 1984 had a pro-poor effect on the utilization of GPs, any physician visits and any ambulatory visits. In contrast, the implementation of Private Health Insurance (PHI) policies over the period 1997 to 2000 had a pro-rich effect on the distribution of health-care utilization in recent years, but this finding is based on the assumption that PHI policies affected health-care consumption in the long term.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohammad Hajizadeh & Luke Brian Connelly & James Robert Gerard Butler, 2012. "Health policy and horizontal inequities of health-care utilization in Australia: 1983--2005," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(18), pages 1765-1775, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:19:y:2012:i:18:p:1765-1775
    DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2012.659337
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    Cited by:

    1. Xin Xie & Qunhong Wu & Yanhua Hao & Hui Yin & Wenqi Fu & Ning Ning & Ling Xu & Chaojie Liu & Ye Li & Zheng Kang & Changzhi He & Guoxiang Liu, 2014. "Identifying Determinants of Socioeconomic Inequality in Health Service Utilization among Patients with Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-14, June.
    2. Mohammad Hajizadeh & Luke Brian Connelly & James Robert Gerard Butler, 2014. "Health Policy and Equity of Health Care Financing in Australia: 1973–2010," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(2), pages 298-322, June.
    3. Pulok, Mohammad Habibullah & van Gool, Kees & Hall, Jane, 2020. "Horizontal inequity in the utilisation of healthcare services in Australia," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(11), pages 1263-1271.
    4. Pulok, Mohammad Habibullah & Hajizadeh, Mohammad, 2022. "Equity in the use of physician services in Canada's universal health system: A longitudinal analysis of older adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    5. Pulok, Mohammad Habibullah & van Gool, Kees & Hall, Jane, 2020. "Inequity in physician visits: the case of the unregulated fee market in Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).

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