민간의료보험과 미충족 의료와의 관계

Abstract

Objectives: Although Korea has universal health coverage, many patients still pay high out-of-pocket (OOP) payments because of the lower level of public health insurance benefits. Recent increase in the rate of purchasing private health insurance (PHI) schemes may have lessened the burden of OOP, and thus, may have reduced barriers to accessing health care. This study aims to examine whether there exits an association between supplementary PHI and experiencing unmet health care needs.

Methods: Data were obtained from the community health survey (CHS) of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Estimates were drawn from combined cross-sectional survey data from the five study years (2008-2012). Total sample consists of 1,138,349 individuals. Multiple binary logistic regressions were performed to assess the statistical significance of various factors, including PHI, on the likelihood of experiencing unmet health care needs.

Results: Those who have PHI are less likely to experience unmet health care needs (OR=0.91, 95% CI=0.90-0.92). In addition, among those who reported that they had unmet health care needs because of financial barriers, the likelihood of experiencing unmet health care needs is much lower, if they had PHI (OR=0.56, 95%CI=0.54-0.58). Other variables that exhibit statistically significant, negative associations with the likelihood of experiencing unmet health care needs include education and income levels.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that having PHI may have reduced potential access barriers to health care, particularly for those who have financial barriers. More research is needed to understand the direct causal relationship between PHI and unmet health care needs.