Equity in Swedish Health Care Reconsidered: New Results Based on the Finite Mixture Model

Abstract

This paper reconsiders the equity issue in Swedish health care utilisation previously analyzed by Gerdtham (Health Economics 6, 303-319, 1997) within the framework of the standard two-part model. Departing from the user/nonuser distinction, we use the more flexible framework of the finite mixture model that distinguishes between frequent/infrequent users. Our empirical results indicate that the finite mixture model fits the data better than the two-part model. The results indicate that income increases use among infrequent users in both physician and hospital care but that there is no such income effect among frequent users.

Keywords: equity, health care, count data, latent class models, finite mixture models

JEL Classification: C20, C25, C52, I10, I18