How to Attract Physicians to Underserved Areas? Policy Recommendations from a Structural Model

Abstract

This paper exploits location choices of all generalist physicians graduated in Brazil between 2001 and 2013 to study policies aiming at increasing the supply of physicians in underserved areas. We set up and estimate a supply and demand model for physicians. We estimate physicians' locational preferences using a random coefficients discrete choice model. The demand has private establishments competing for physicians with private and public facilities around the country. Policy counterfactuals indicate that quotas in medical schools for students born in underserved areas and the opening of vacancies in medical schools in deprived areas are more cost-effective than financial incentives.

Who cares when you close down? The effects of primary care practice closures on patients

“…Second, the heterogeneous effects across regions are relevant for healthcare planning. Policies promoting a more even spatial distribution of GPs could alleviate the geographic disparities documented in this paper (see also Costa et al., 2019). First, structural incentives could attract more GPs to under‐served areas; for example, funding the establishment of larger practices with salaried employment may attract young physicians to peripheral areas, since solo practices are unattractive to young doctors (Gisler et al., 2017).…”

Is primary health care worth it in the long run? Evidence from Brazil

“…That is, one might assume that the potential increase in the demand for these types of workers as the program grows larger would not lead to imbalances in the local labor market for health professionals. This point is relevant due to the sizable shortcoming in the supply of physicians in some parts of the country (particularly the poorest states, mostly in the northern regions), as most of this labor force is concentrated in state capitals (Costa et al., 2019).…”