Measuring and testing for inequity in the delivery of health care

This paper compares two indices of horizontal inequity in the delivery of h ealth care. the index proposed by Wagstaff, van Doorslaer, and Paci (1991), and another index derived in this paper. As well as discussing the computa tional aspects of these two indices, the paper also addresses the issue of statistical inference, comparing two estimators for the standard error of e ach index. The paper contains an empirical illustration of both sets of met hods using data from the 1992 Dutch Health Interview Survey.