|
KMID : 1170320130190010093
|
|
Korean Journal of Health Economics and Policy
2013 Volume.19 No. 1 p.93 ~ p.114
|
|
|
Prevention and Medical Care Use
|
|
Chung Wan-Kyo
|
|
|
Abstract
|
|
|
|
Presently, there is a growing emphasis on prevention and preventive medical care as a financial stability measure for National Health Insurance. This paper studies the status of Korean prevention and preventive medical care, and estimates the determinants of them. Moreover, it examines the relationship between prevention and other medical care use. The results show that the proportion of alcohol drinkers has risen since 1999 while that of smokers has fallen. Simultaneously, the proportion of regular exercisers has risen and that of the people who undergo regular health check-up has significantly risen since 2003. In addition, the analysis on the demand for prevention and preventive medical care shows that as people grow older, they increasingly tend to undergo health check-up, cancer screening, and vaccinations. Also, the more they age, the less men smoke and women drink. It turns out also that the private medical insurance contributes to more use of preventive medical care for women, such as health check-up and cancer screening. In the meantime, people with less education and income undergo less health check-up and cancer screening This paper also estimates a common factor through factor analysis using correlation matrix between prevention and preventive medical care, and then examines the impact of the estimated common factor on the use of curative medical services. The results show that the common factor increases the use of outpatient service and pharmacy, but has no statistically significant effect on the use of inpatient service. Therefore, it is not desirable to blindly emphasize the use of prevention and preventive medical care to reduce medical expense. Only after measuring the cost and benefit of each prevention and preventive medical care service, the ones with more cost effectiveness should be introduced with priority.
|
|
|
KEYWORD
|
|
|
Prevention, Factor analysis, Medical care use
|
|
|
FullTexts / Linksout information
|
|
|
|
|
|
Listed journal information
|
|
|
|