The demand for health services in Spain: does having private insurance matter?

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the question of whether there exists any difference in the use of the Spanish healthcare services between privately and publicly insured individuals. The analysis is carried out using two different estimation techniques, matching on the propensity score and inverse probability weighting, using the 2017 National Health Survey. Twelve different outcomes are taken into account in assessing the difference in the use of preventive health controls between individuals with private health coverage and individuals with public health coverage only. Results revealed that privately insured individuals take preventive health checkups more frequently in comparison to individuals with public coverage, despite finding no differences in their self-assessed health status.