Access to Health Care Services in Peru and the Equity of its Financing

Abstract

This study develops a methodology to analize the demand for health services. It is based on dichotomic regressions aimed at determining why consumers prefer certain services and do not demand other. It discusses the possible impact on the number of medical visits of changes in health costs and households income, and focuses on highlighting some criteria regarding the efficiency and fairness of current policies of coverage and finance. The empirical analysis uses information from the National Survey on Health Expenditures (Endesa, 1995), which obtained data on health and demographic variables from a sample of 1,290 households and 6,366 individuals.