Equity in the Use of Health Care Services by Immigrants in the Spanish National Health Care System

  1. Jiménez Rubio, Dolores 1
  1. 1 Departamento Economía Aplicada Universidad de Granada
Revue:
Estudios de economía aplicada

ISSN: 1133-3197,  1697-5731

Année de publication: 2008

Titre de la publication: Economía de los intangibles: Experiencias

Volumen: 26

Número: 3

Pages: 211-230

Type: Article

DOI: 10.25115/EEA.V26I3.5678 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

D'autres publications dans: Estudios de economía aplicada

Résumé

The increasing proportion of immigrants in the Spanish society is creating pressures for the National Health Care System to accommodate the needs of this population group while keeping their costs under control. The Spanish health care system establishes that all people, regardless of their nationality, should be entitled to use health care services with the same conditions as Spanish citizens provided that they are registered in the local population census. Empirical evidence about differences in health status or utilisation between immigrant and Spanish-born population is however insufficient. This study uses the 2003 Spanish National Health Survey to explore whether non-Spaniards, for the same level of need, use health care services at the same rate as national citizens. The findings suggest that the nationality of an individual is an important predictor of health care utilisation, independent of other factors. These results may indicate horizontal inequity in the utilisation of health care with respect to nationality.

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