Primary health care in New Zealand: Who has access?

• Published in: Health policy (Amsterdam) Vol. 93; no. 1; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Jatrana, Santosh, Crampton, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier Ireland Ltd 01.11.2009; Elsevier
• Series: Health Policy
• Subjects: Access barriers; Access to health care; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Cost; Demographics; Dental care; Dentists; Doctors; Female; Health administration; Health behaviour; Health Care Surveys; Health policy; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Internal Medicine; Logistic Models; Male; Medical service; Medicine; Middle Aged; New Zealand; Prescriptions; Primary Health Care; Primary health care Access barriers New Zealand; Socioeconomic status; Statistics; Young Adult; New Zealand; New Zealand; Access barriers; Primary health care
• ISSN: 0168-8510; 1872-6054
• DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2009.05.006

Abstract Objective We examined the demographic, socioeconomic, health behaviour and health determinants of financial barriers to access to general practitioner services, prescription drugs and dental care in New Zealand (NZ). Methods Data from SoFIE-health, which is an add-on to the Statistics New Zealand-led Survey of Family, Income and Employment (SoFIE), were analyzed using logistic regression. Results Of the total of 18,320 respondents, 2845 (15.5%), 4175 (22.8%), and 1165 (6.4%), reported that they had deferred seeing their doctor/s, dentist and buying a prescription, respectively, at least once during the preceding 12 months, because they could not afford the cost of a visit or prescription. Younger age, female sex, low or middle income tertile, living in a least deprived area, having more individual deprivation characteristics (5+), current smokers, reporting high and very high levels of psychological distress and more than two co-morbid diseases were all independently associated with increased odds of deferring doctors’ visits, collecting medications and dental visits. Conclusions Financial barriers to needed primary care exist for a substantial subgroup of people in New Zealand. A key policy lever is lowering cost barriers to make primary health care in general and dental care in particular more accessible.