Abstract
This study is to investigate patient's choice of health care and the demand for Korean traditional medicine care in rural areas in 1995. It tried to evaluate the effect of out-of-pocket expenditure, travel time, and waiting time on improving care-seeking and substituting clinical medicine for pharmacy care and Korean traditional medicine care in rural areas. The statistical model of this study is conditional logit to estimate effects of choice-specific and individual-specific characteristics on the choice of type of services. This study used, as explanatory variables, average out-of-pocket payment, travel time, and waiting time of services required to use the services. The model was empirically tested using data from 1995 Korean National Health Survery. The results showed that rural Koreans responded to out-of pocket payment and travel time. Increases of out-of-pocket payment and travel time decreased the probability to choose care in rural Korea. Rural Koreans were more likely to seek care than others with low out-of-pocket payment and travel time. The probability of choosing Korean traditional medicine were higher among the members of the households with higher education level and older persons, while they were lower in the households with large family than others compared with the probabilities of choosing public health facilities. The result of this study implies that policy on use of health care in rural Korea can be focused in managing travel time and out-of-pocket payment.
