The Effect of Macroeconomic Conditions on the Care Decisions of the Employed

摘要: BACKGROUND Medical care utilization has been found to be affected indirectly by changes in economic conditions through associated employment or insurance status. However, if individuals interpret external macroeconomic as risk, they may alter decisions seek even remain both employed and insured. OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship between fluctuations medical usage of Americans who are RESEARCH DESIGN Restricting Expenditure Panel Survey from 1995 2008 respondents whose status did not change, we a fixed-effect Poisson model association state average annual unemployment rates 12 services. RESULTS The rate was significant factor hospital outpatient visits (P < 0.01) emergency room (P < 0.01). A one percentage point increase produce an additional 0.67 0.14 visits. CONCLUSIONS State were statistically significantly with several services studied, suggesting important insured individuals. Thus, policy that access among unemployed uninsured mitigate this risk effect create incentives potentially those currently