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Local inequality and departures from publicly provided health care in Canada
Author(s) -
Isabelle Maripier,
Stabile Mark
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
health economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.55
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1099-1050
pISSN - 1057-9230
DOI - 10.1002/hec.4117
Subject(s) - inequality , economic inequality , context (archaeology) , economics , demographic economics , income distribution , health care , public economics , public health , economic growth , medicine , geography , mathematical analysis , mathematics , nursing , archaeology
This paper examines the relationship between changes in income inequality and the provision of resources in a health care system (the public‐private mix). Specifically, we investigate whether increases in income inequality, as separate from overall income levels and growth, have changed the availability of both private clinics and privately financed physicians in a context where the dominant market player is the public system. Our findings provide reasonable evidence that increases in income inequality have led to substantial increases in both. We find that moving from median level of inequality across neighborhoods to the top 1% level of inequality increases the probably of a private clinic by 40% and the probability of having physicians who have opted out of the public system by 170%.