時間、所得與中西醫療價格對中醫門診利用之影響

The Effects of Time, Income and Price on the Demand for Chinese Medicine Ambulatory Care

10.6288/CJPH1995-14-06-03

李卓倫(Jwo-Jeun Lee)；紀駿輝(Chun-Huei Chi)；賴俊雄(Jim-Shoung Lai)

中醫醫療 ； 門診 ； 需求 ； 彈性 ； Chinese Medicine ； Ambulatory Care ； Demand ； Elasticity

中華公共衛生雜誌

14卷6期（1995 / 12 / 01）

470 - 476

繁體中文

中華民國於1995年實施的全民健康保險已給付中醫門診，目前重要的相關政策議題包括：保險對中醫門診需求的影響，中西醫門診問的替代或互補關係，中醫門診的部份負擔額度，以及中醫院所的特約幅度。本研究嘗試以中醫門診患者為樣本來作部份解答。研究結果顯示中醫門診病人存在明顯的複向求醫行為。對於所有的中醫門診病人而言，中醫門診的時問彈性係數為－0.260，無保險者的價格彈性為－0.197，有保險者的自付額彈性為－0.100，對西醫門診價格的交叉彈性為－0.005，所得彈性未達顯著水準。對於同時使用中西醫門診的中醫門診病人而言，中醫門診的時問彈性為－0.361，無保險者的價格彈性為－0.293，有保險者的自付額彈性為－0.149，所得彈性和對西醫門診價格的交叉彈性未達統計相關水準。保險政策欲單獨以高額部份負擔來抑制中醫門診需求的效果可能有限，且本研究中並未發現中西醫門診使用之間存在互補性或替代性關係的證據。中醫門診的時問彈性大淤價格彈性則為值得重視的數據。

The new National Health Insurance (NHI) program of Taiwan that was implemented in 1995 now covers Chinese medicine ambulatory care. A major concern of this coverage is whether and how much the NHI will affect the demand for Chinese medicine. Moreover, the relationship between the demand for Chinese and modern Western medicine is likely to affect the net change in the demand for both. This study, based on a national sample interview, examines whether the demand for Chinese medicine ambulatory care is a complement or a substitute for ambulatory care in modern Western medicine. Based on the results of this study, the authors also try to predict the future demand for Chinese medicine ambulatory care. Results from this study suggest that there is little evidence that the demand for ambulatory care in Chinese medicine and modern Western medicine are related, as was shown by the low cross elasticity (-0.005) between the two. Furthermore, the data indicates that there is a low price elasticity of demand for Chinese medicine, which suggests that relying on cost-sharing alone to prevent the overuse of Chinese medicine ambulatory care may not be very effective. Another new finding of this study is that time, which has a higher elasticity of demand than price, is an important factor in predicting demand for Chinese medicine.