In spite of government dominance in financing health care in many countries, the private health care sector remains important. This is true even though most public provision is heavily subsidized, and in many cases free, at source. Britain's National Health Service fails to drive out the private sector because it suffers from certain inflexibilities. Here, we show that longer waiting lists for NHS treatment are associated with greater purchases of private health insurance.
Authors
Tim Besley
Research Associate London School of Economics
Timothy is a Research Associate at the IFS and a Professor of Economics and Political Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Ian Preston
Research Fellow University College London
Ian is a Research Fellow of the IFS and a Professor of Economics at UCL. He joined UCL in 1991 and has been attached to the IFS since 1990.
John Hall
Journal article details
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- JEL
- H4, I1
- Issue
- May 1999
Suggested citation
T, Besley and J, Hall and I, Preston. (1999). 'The demand for private health insurance: do waiting lists matter?' (1999)
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