<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:creator>Domenighetti G</dc:creator>
  <dc:creator>Vineis P</dc:creator>
  <dc:creator>De Pietro C</dc:creator>
  <dc:creator>Tomada A</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2010</dc:date>
  <dc:description xmlns:ns0="xml" ns0:lang="en">BACKGROUND
Equity in delivery and distribution of health care is an important determinant of health and a cornerstone in the long way to social justice. We performed a comparative analysis of the prevalence of Italian and British residents who have fully paid out-of-pocket for health services which they could have obtained free of charge or at a lower cost from their respective National Health Services.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study based on a standardized questionnaire survey carried out in autumn 2006 among two representative samples (n = 1000) of the general population aged 20-74 years in each of the two countries.


RESULTS
78% (OR 19.9; 95% CI 15.5-25.6) of Italian residents have fully paid out-of-pocket for at least one access to health services in their lives, and 45% (OR 18.1; 95% CI 12.9-25.5) for more than five accesses. Considering only the last 2 years, 61% (OR 16.5; 95% CI 12.6-21.5) of Italians have fully paid out-of-pocket for at least one access. The corresponding pattern for British residents is 20 and 4% for lifelong prevalence, and 10% for the last 2 years.


CONCLUSIONS
Opening the public health facilities to a privileged private access to all hospital physicians based on patient's ability to pay, as Italy does, could be a source of social inequality in access to care and could probably represent a major obstacle to decreasing waiting times for patients in the standard formal 'free of charge' way of access.</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>https://sonar.ch/global/documents/189891</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>eng</dc:language>
  <dc:relation>info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1093/eurpub/ckq001</dc:relation>
  <dc:relation>info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/20142398</dc:relation>
  <dc:rights>info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess</dc:rights>
  <dc:source>European journal of public health. - 2010</dc:source>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns1="xml" ns1:lang="en">Adult</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns2="xml" ns2:lang="en">Aged</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns3="xml" ns3:lang="en">Financing, Personal</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns4="xml" ns4:lang="en">Health Services Accessibility</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns5="xml" ns5:lang="en">Healthcare Disparities</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns6="xml" ns6:lang="en">Humans</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns7="xml" ns7:lang="en">Interviews as Topic</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns8="xml" ns8:lang="en">Italy</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns9="xml" ns9:lang="en">Logistic Models</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns10="xml" ns10:lang="en">Middle Aged</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns11="xml" ns11:lang="en">National Health Programs</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns12="xml" ns12:lang="en">Socioeconomic Factors</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns13="xml" ns13:lang="en">State Medicine</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns14="xml" ns14:lang="en">Surveys and Questionnaires</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns15="xml" ns15:lang="en">United Kingdom</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns16="xml" ns16:lang="en">Waiting Lists</dc:subject>
  <dc:title xmlns:ns17="xml" ns17:lang="en">Ability to pay and equity in access to Italian and British National Health Services.</dc:title>
  <dc:type>http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>