THE DEMAND AND CHOICE OF CHINESE MEDICINE, WESTERN MEDICINE AND PHARMACIES

• Main Authors: YEH, YAU-CHIN, 葉堯進
• Other Authors: CHEN, CHIN-SHYAN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/04013703296963430127

碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 經濟學系 === 91 === There are four types of medical services to choose when people are ill in Taiwan: western medicine, Chinese medicine, traditional medicine, and pharmacies. With the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI), the accessibility of medical service for residents in Taiwan has increased. Most importantly, people’s out of pocket medical expenses are reduced after NHI. However, lots of people still prefer to choose alternative treatments, such as pharmacies, or traditional medicine which are not covered by NHI, even though they may have to spend more money. In other words, the price of medical service might not be the most important factors affecting people to choose medical treatments. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand the factors determining the decision. In this study, people, who are over 18 and have received medical treatments in the past one month during interview, are selected in our research. We only focus on the people who suffer one of the following three diseases: cold, chronic disease and sprain. Multinomial logit model is used for the empirical research. The results show that no matter in what kinds of situations, the probability to choose Chinese medical treatments for females are higher than the one for males. People who do not have NHI are more prone to go to pharmacies or to choose traditional treatments. As for “age” factor, even with different diseases, the choice of medical service remains the same. When people have cold, educated people are more likely to choose Chinese medicine than non-educated ones. Furthermore, educated people suffering chronic disease are more likely to go to Chinese or western medical facilities than their counterpart. People with moderate and good health condition prefer to see a western medicine doctor when they have cold. As regards sprain, the evidence indicates that healthy people prefer going to Chinese or western medical facilities when they need medical treatments. People with over 20,000 dollars monthly income are more likely to see a Chinese medicine doctor when they catch cold. However, income factor does not play any role in affecting people’s medical service choice when they suffer chronic diseases. Finally, for sprain condition, most people with higher income consider Chinese or western medical facilities the first medical service choice.