HOSPITAL UTILIZATION IN ONTARIO AND THE UNITED-STATES - THE IMPACT OFSOCIOECONOMIC-STATUS AND HEALTH-STATUS

We compared hospital use in Ontario and the United States for persons with different socioeconomic and health status. Methods: Cross-section al study using the 1990 Ontario Health Survey and the 1990 National He alth Interview Survey. Results: Admission rates averaged 31% higher in Ontario than in the United States, but international differences vari ed markedly across income and health status. At each level of health s tatus, poor Canadians received one quarter to one third more admission s than their counterparts in the United States. However, higher income Canadians reporting excellent to good health had 50% more admissions than Americans, whereas those reporting fair or poor health had 10% fe wer admissions. Conclusions: the observation that higher income sick p ersons receive less hospital care in Ontario than in the U.S. provides support at the population level for what has been observed for specif ic technologies. This represents, in part, a redistribution of inpatie nt care to those most vulnerable to illness, such as the poor, who rec eive substantially more hospital care in Ontario.