Table III.
Use of Phyician Services Beginning at Age 65 By Insurance Status Prior to Age 65
| Difference (Uninsured - Privately Insured) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean for Privately Insured |
Unadjusted | Adjusted | Adjusted Including Supplemental Insurance and Extra Health Controls |
|
| NHIS-Medicare | ||||
| Physician Visits | 7.29 | −1.64*** [0.47] | −2.02*** [0.44] | -- |
| Office-Based | 6.67 | −2.42*** [0.42] | −2.37*** [0.39] | -- |
| General | 3.07 | −0.34 [0.24] | −0.64*** [0.19] | -- |
| Specialist | 3.10 | −0.62*** [0.09] | −1.39*** [0.27] | -- |
| Other and non-physician | 0.50 | −0.20** [0.09] | −0.13** [0.06] | -- |
| Hospital Outpatient Department | 0.33 | 0.39*** [0.09] | 0.17** [0.08] | -- |
| Emergency Room | 0.29 | 0.20*** [0.05] | 0.08* [0.04] | -- |
| HRS-Medicare | ||||
| Physician Visits | 6.50 | −0.38 [0.38] | −1.07*** [0.34] | −.70** [0.30] |
| Office-Based | 6.03 | −1.10*** [0.35] | −1.39*** [0.31] | −.97*** [0.28] |
| General | 2.69 | −0.35* [0.19] | −.70*** [0.18] | −.53*** [0.17] |
| Specialist | 2.87 | −.58** [0.28] | −.42* [0.26] | −0.21 [0.23] |
| Other and non-physician | 0.48 | −.18** [0.07] | −.21*** [0.06] | −.17*** [0.05] |
| Hospital Outpatient Department | 0.30 | .41*** [0.07] | .15** [0.07] | .13** [0.06] |
| Emergency Room | 0.17 | .10*** [0.02] | .03** [0.02] | .03** [0.01] |
"Publicly Insured" category included but not shown.
Adjusted differences consist of marginal effects from a generalized linear model using a log link and, for expenditures, a gamma distribution and for visit/stay counts, a negative binomial. Standard errors are in brackets. Control variables include those listed in Table 2.
The symbols *, ** and *** denote significance at the 10, 5 and 1% level respectively.
For the NHIS, the sample consists of 33,368 person years (3,490 uninsured, 22,405 privately insured, and 7,473 publicly insured) who match with Medicare records, were under the age of 65 at the time of the survey, and have non-missing information on survey variables. The analysis also excludes those in an HMO once they enter an HMO and individuals in any year who do not have Part B for any month of the year.
For the HRS, the sample consists of 20,047 person years (2,398 uninsured, 14,589 privately insured, and 3,060 publicly insured) who match with Medicare records, were under the age of 65 at the time of the survey, and have non-missing information on survey variables. The analysis also excludes those in an HMO once they enter an HMO and individuals in any year who do not have Part B for any month of the year.