PATIENT CHOICE OF PHYSICIAN - DO HEALTH-INSURANCE AND PHYSICIAN CHARACTERISTICS MATTER

Generous health insurance coverage is widely believed to have contribu ted to both high and rising health care costs. This paper tests the hy pothesis that better insured patients will demand higher ''quality'' b y choosing more often to visit specialists rather than generalist phys icians. We model the conditional decision to seek care from a speciali st physician as a function of health insurance status, physician chara cteristics, and other socioeconomic factors. Analysis of data from the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey and the American Medical Ass ociation suggests that the presence of insurance coverage does not aff ect choice of physician. The results do show that people enrolled in h ealth maintenance organizations (HMOs) see specialists less often than other patients.