142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

299777
Effect of socioeconomic status and national health insurance registration on the use of medical service

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014

Minsung Sohn, MPH , Department of Public Health Sciences, Graduate School of Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
Minsoo Jung, PhD, MPH , Department of Health Science, Dongduk Women's University, Seoul, South Korea
Many developed countries guarantee minimum amount of medical service through national health insurance programs. However, little is known about how these programs affect the individual’s utilization of medical service. This study investigates how one’s socioeconomic status affects their choices on medical service, as well as how the relationship between the two varies by whether one owns a public or private health insurance. We used Korea Health Panel from 2008 to 2011 (n=18,237). In order to identify the impact of public or private health insurance registration has on the usage of medical service, longitudinal study applied with generalized estimating equation was conducted. The subordination variable was whether or not one used medical service such as outpatient, inpatient and emergency medical service. The analysis result revealed that the use of medical service differed greatly by one’s socioeconomic status after adjusting potential confounders. The medical service usage increased as the educational level and income increased. Also, the lack of health insurance reduced the medical service usage, and the usage increased when one owned private health insurance. Thus, it is necessary to strengthen the coverage of public health insurance while using the private health insurance as a supplementary tool in order to enhance the health equity.

Learning Areas:

Public health administration or related administration
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Identify the gap of the use of medical service between social classes. Analyze the effects of national health insurance registration the use of medical service. Develop national healthcare policy for reducing health disparities in terms of accessibility of health service.

Keyword(s): Health Disparities/Inequities, Accessibility

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been actively involved with Public Health research, particularly in the areas of health disparity including adolescents, working adults, elders, and military personnel. I have also been the principal and co-principal of researches funded from the Korean Hospital Association, Yuhan Pharmaceutical, and the Korean Department of Defense. I recently participated in the oral presentation and received an ‘Excellence in Research’ award from the 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Public Health.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.