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Medical insurance and childhood general practitioner contacts
D M Fergusson1, L J Horwood, F T Shannon
1Department of Paediatrics, Christchurch School of Medicine, Christchurch Hospital.
Insights
Children with private medical insurance had more general practitioner visits. This study found that insured children accessed healthcare more frequently, indicating potential inequalities in childhood healthcare access.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Health Services Research
- Socioeconomic Determinants of Health
Background:
- Access to healthcare is crucial for child development.
- Socioeconomic factors can influence healthcare utilization.
- The impact of private medical insurance on pediatric healthcare access requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the relationship between private medical insurance duration and general practitioner consultation rates in children.
- To determine if insurance status affects healthcare access independently of social and economic factors.
- To assess the long-term impact of insurance on healthcare utilization up to age ten.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of a birth cohort of children followed for ten years.
- Comparison of general practitioner consultation rates between insured and uninsured children.
- Statistical adjustments for known social and economic factors.
Main Results:
- Insured children had significantly higher consultation rates than uninsured children (p < 0.001).
- From birth to five years, insured children had 19.16 consultations vs. 15.38 for uninsured.
- From five to ten years, insured children had 13.07 consultations vs. 9.38 for uninsured.
Conclusions:
- Private medical insurance is associated with increased general practitioner consultations in children.
- The findings suggest that private insurance may exacerbate healthcare access inequalities in childhood.
- Children from insured families demonstrated greater access to primary healthcare services.
Abstract:
The relationships between the duration of medical insurance coverage and rates of general practitioner consultations for morbidity were examined for a birth cohort of children studied to ten years. This showed that children from insured families had higher consultation rates even when due allowance was made for known social and economic factors correlated with the ownership of insurance. During the period from birth to five years children who were insured throughout the period made a mean of 19.16 consultations compared to 15.38 for the uninsured (p less than 0.001); during the period from five to ten years the insured made 13.07 contacts compared to 9.38 for the uninsured (p less than 0.001). The net effects of these trends were that children whose families had been insured throughout the ten year study period made a mean of nine more general practitioner consultations by the age of ten years than children from uninsured families. It is concluded that the presence of private medical insurance encourages the development of inequalities in childhood access to health care with children from insured families having greater access to care than children from uninsured families.