Time Prices and the Demand for Primary Health Care in Chile

Abstract

In this paper we study the demand for primary health care in Chile. Particularly, we examine the demand for preventive care using a sample of urban children residents in the Metropolitan Region. Following Acton (1975), we assess the influence of time prices and several other socioeconomic and demographic factors on demand. Although not significant at conventional levels, the negative coefficient of travel time price would indicate that this non-monetary factor (and potentially other sources of time not controlled for in this study) could act, under certain circumstances, as a money price in discouraging demand. The magnitude of the travel time price elasticity is consistent with the range of time price elasticities found in high-income countries. The greatest impact on the probability of demand is found to be associated to food collection, nutritional status of the child and prescription of medicines. Among the nutritional conditions, undernourishment is the most important. The working status of the mother a d economic variables such as earned and non-earned income do not have a relevant impact on demand.