Document Type : Original Research Paper
Authors
1 Department of Health Economics, Faculty of Medical Information and Management, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Fars, Iran
2 Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Shiraz University, Fars, Iran
3 Department of Health Economics, Faculty of Medical Information and Management, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
4 Insurance Research Institute, Tehran, Iran
5 Department of Management, Health and Human Resources Management Research Center, Faculty of Medical Information and Management, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Fars, Iran
Abstract
Selling unnecessary services to patients puts a lot of pressure on insurance companies. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of the increase in the competition of doctors and, as a result, the increase in induced demand on health expenditures. This study is applied and of a descriptive-analytical type, which was conducted using panel data in an eight-year period (1385-1392). After performing appropriate econometric tests, finally the model was estimated using the Driscoll-Karay test. According to the results, with the increase in the ratio of doctors per capita, health care expenses increased in a third-order equation, and in this case, the induced demand hypothesis that the increase in the supply of doctors affects health expenses in Iran during the years of study is accepted. According to this finding, with a 1% increase in the ratio of doctors to the population, healthcare expenses increase by 0.38%. Considering the existence of a significant relationship between the physician per capita and the population and health costs, as well as the point of change of the concavity of the obtained function, it seems that the decision makers in this field, such as medical insurance, as the buyer of services, should pay more attention to the control of this issue in these insurance policies.
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