TY  - JOUR
AU  - Buchmueller,Thomas C.
AU  - Couffinhal,Agnes
AU  - Grignon,Michel
AU  - Perronin,Marc
TI  - Access to Physician Services: Does Supplemental Insurance Matter? Evidence from France
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9238
PY  - 2002
Y2  - September 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9238
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9238.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Thomas C. Buchmueller
Stephen M. Ross School of Business
University of Michigan
701 Tappan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Tel: 734/764-5933
E-Mail: tbuch@umich.edu

Michel L. Grignon
E-Mail: grignon@mcmaster.ca
AB  - In France, public health insurance is universal but incomplete, with private payments accounting for roughly 25 percent of all spending. As a result, most people have supplemental private health insurance. We investigate the effects of such insurance on the utilization of physician services using data from the 1998 Enquˆte Sant‚ Protection Sociale, a nationally representative survey of the French population. Our results indicate that insurance has a strong and significant effect on the utilization of physician services.  Individuals with supplemental coverage have substantially more physician visits than those without. In a context where patients are free to choose their provider, we find no evidence that adults with supplemental insurance are more likely to visit a specialist than a general practitioner.
ER  -