Privata sjukvårdsförsäkringar i Sverige - Hjälpande eller stjälpande för den offentliga specialistvårdkön?

Abstract

Private health insurance has rapidly increased during the 21st century and has become a target for political debate in recent years. Some argue that private health insurance can be a relief for the public health care system, while others claim that private insured patients buy themselves ahead in line and make the public waiting time longer. This paper aims to examine how private health insurance affects waiting time for specialist-healthcare in the areas orthopedics, dermatology, eye-care, otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose and throat) and urology. The study is based on longitudinal panel data on regional level during the years 2011-2015. The coefficients are estimated through OLS analysis both with and without region fixed effects. The results are significant and positive which indicates that waiting time increases when users of private health care increases, ie. there is a causal effect. The results should be considered carefully as there may be a problem with reversed causality which could, in some terms, affect the results. Another conclusion is that the increase in private health care users does not decrease the public waiting time, which is in line with previous research from other OECD-countries.