Expense Is No Object...: Income and Physician Visits Reconsidered

Abstract

The relationship between income and physician visits, especially the assumption that the poor underutilize physician services is reexamined and tested with data from a survey of Rhode Island residents. The National Center for Health Statistics publications on the Volume of Physician Visits show a changing pattern in the use of physician services among income groups during the interval between 1960 and 1968. These data are complemented by findings from a 1971 survey of Rhode Island adults that show an inverse relationship between income and physician visits. The inverse trend in the Rhode Island data goes beyond the national pattern of a flattening of income diflerentials. The tendency for lower income respondents to be more likely to report physician visits during the previous sixty days as compared to visits reported by persons with larger incomes persisted even when controls were introduced for a number of related factors such as age, the mode of health care delivery used, and the presence of restricted activity days during the time period being studied. The accessibility of publicly financed medical care was found to be associated with use of physician services.