Volume 18, Number 3 (Summer) 1983
Coffey, Rosanna M. 1983. "The Effect of Time Price on the Demand for Medical-Care Services." Journal of Human Resources 18(3):407-424.
This paper analyzes the effect of time price on medical-care demand and describes use of a reservation-wage question from a household survey to develop a measure of time price for obtaining medical care. A comprehensive three-equation model of the demand for female medical-care services examines choice of provider, entry demand, and the demand for physician visits. Results show that provider choice is based primarily on economic factors and that an expected high time price discourages women from choosing a public provider and from seeking gynecological, maternal-health, or family-planning services during the year, yet does not influence the number of visits made once care is used. The estimated model shows that medical-care demand equations should control for the type of provider chosen and the opportunity cost of time for alternative activities when testing for a negative time price effect of obtaining medical care.
The author is an Economist with the National Center for Health Services
Research. Public
Health Service. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The National Center for Health Services Research (NCHSR) supported this project
through the Division of Intramural Research and funded the data collection
through Contract #HRA 230-76-0299. I am grateful to the NCHSR staff for their
continuing encouragement and particularly to Marianne Miller, Alan Monheit,
Pamela Farley, and Marsha Goldfarb for comments on a draft of this paper.
Michael Grossman and Charles Phelps also generously provided valuable comments.
I am also indebted to Thomas Johnson, my dissertation advisor, who motivated my
interest and work in this area. The views expressed in this paper are those of
the author and no official endorsement of the National Center for Health
Services Research is intended or should be inferred.
© 2003 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
US ISSN 0022-166X