Explaining the utilisation of dental care. Experiences from the Finnish dental market

In this paper a model based on the theory of demand for health and of supplier inducement is developed to explain the utilisation of dental care. Of special interest are the effects of money price and various forms of inducement. It is also explored how the results are affected if different model specifications and estimation techniques are applied and what is the most appropriate one, when utilisation is measured by dental expenditure. The data come from a sample of 1779 employees, whose dental expenditure is refunded from 0 to 99.75%. Other things being equal, the methodological choices make a clear difference in parameter estimates. Only a log-linear two-part model and two-part tobit with selectivity were suitable for explaining expenditure and produced quite similar results. Money price elasticity was small, but significant (-0.069). General and personal inducement appear to have a considerable effect on utilisation, but did not have any systematic connection with dentist/population ratio.