Age positively effects the probability of a reassessment if initially care at home was assessed. Living alone, access to informal care, and applications initiated by professionals increase transition probabilities. Also initial applications for care at home due to dementia are more likely to be followed by a quick reassessment. The results can aid assessment agencies to set validity terms of assessments, and in planning future supply of services.
In The Netherlands, eligibility for subsidised long-term care services is assessed by regional governmental assessment agencies. We examined which factors predict eligibility for eight long-term care alternatives, ranging from a variety of arrangements for care at home to admissions to residential and nursing homes. Data were drawn from the records of a sample of the regional assessment agencies, mostly during the year 2000. The model shows that not only disease and disability but also age, household composition, current housing situation, and use of health-care services determine the choice between the long-term care alternatives. On the basis of this model, we developed a decision support system. This system predicts eligibility for long-term care alternatives on the basis of applicant characteristics, and can support needs assessors in making decisions on the eligibility of individual applicants. It is used for standardization of intake processes and development of protocols for needs assessors. At the population level, it may provide information for managers and policy-makers on the distribution of demand for long-term care in the near future.
Objectives
I analyze the effect of coverage by health insurance on the use of alternative medicine such as folk healers and homeopaths, in particular if it complements or substitutes conventional services.
Methods
Panel data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) is used to estimate bivariate probit models in order to explain the use of alternative medicine while allowing the determinant of interest, access to health insurance, to be an endogenous factor.
Results
The findings indicate that households with insurance coverage less often use alternative medicine, and that the effect is much stronger among poor than among rich households.
Conclusions
Poor households substitute away from traditional medicine towards conventional medicine.
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