TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Costa-Font, Joan
AU  - Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada
        TI  - Can Regional Decentralisation Shift Health Care Preferences?
        PY  - 2017/Nov/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 11180
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp11180
        AB  - Uniform health care delivered by a mainstream public insurer – such as the National Health Service (NHS), seldom satisfies heterogeneous demands for care, and some unsatisfied share of the population either use private health care, or purchase private insurance (PHI). One potential mechanism to partially satisfy heterogeneous preferences for health care, and discourage the use of private health care, is regional health care decentralisation. We find robust estimates suggesting that the development of regional health services shifted both perceptions of, and preferences for, using the NHS, making it more likely individuals would use public health care and, consequently, reducing the uptake of PHI. These results are heterogeneous by income, education, and age groups; and are robust to placebo and other robustness and falsification checks.
        KW  - National Health Service (NHS)
KW  - political decentralization
KW  - use of private health care
KW  - private health insurance
KW  - health system satisfaction
KW  - demand for private health care
        ER  -