Duke 2008 | ASHE | Equity and Efficiency in Health and Healthcare

This paper investigates the source of variation in time costs and its effects on the medical care demand of prime- working-age adults. Few studies have provided empirical results on how individuals respond to delayed appointments, travel time, and waiting time in physicians' offices, even though comprehensive health insurance increases the relative importance of time costs to out-of-pocket monetary costs. By using the 2001 Community Tracking Study Household Survey and several different forms of count regression models, I find that increased time costs reduce medical care demand significantly. Individuals' responses differ by gender and labor force participation status, apparently primarily due to men's greater participation in the work force and their higher wage levels. Further, I find that time costs are more important for general doctor visits than for emergency room visits, and waiting time has the largest negative effect among the three time factors. Evidence that time is an important factor in medical care demand is valuable for policy makers as they consider how to make efficient and equitable allocations of medical services.