How Hospital Ownership Affects Access to Care for the Uninsured
Volume: Volume 25, No. 1
Issue: Spring 1994
Pages: pp. 171-185
Authors: Edward C. Norton and Douglas O. Staiger
Title: How Hospital Ownership Affects Access to Care for the Uninsured
Abstract: This article addresses the effect of hospital ownership on the delivery of service to uninsured patients. It compares the volume of uninsured patients treated in for-profit and nonprofit hospitals by regarding hospital ownership and service as endogenous. Instrumental variable estimates are used to predict the percentage of patients who are uninsured, controlling for hospital ownership and service. The study shows that when for-profit and nonprofit hospitals are located in the same area, they serve an equivalent number of uninsured patients, but for-profit hospitals indirectly avoid the uninsured by locating more often in better-insured areas.
JEL Classification
Analysis of Health Care Markets (I110)
Economics of Health including medical subsidy programs (9130)