Abstract Long waiting times are a common feature and a major concern in many public health care systems. They are often characterized as inefficient because they are a burden to patients without generating any gains for providers. There is an ongoing debate in Germany regarding the preferential...

This paper projects the health expenditures in the social health insurance (SHI) in Germany until 2050. The long-term expenditure volume of the SHI is analyzed by OLS and vector autoregression (VAR) models. VAR models are less restrictive compared with OLS and impose no strict exogeneity...

This paper explores variations in the uptake of breast cancer screening and associated factors influencing utilisation of mammography screening among women aged 50 to 69 years in 13 European countries. We focus on the relative importance of individual (e.g. age, education, etc.) and...

Auf Grundlage von Daten des 'Survey of Health Ageing and Retirement in Europe' (SHARE) werden in diesem Beitrag einkommensbezogene Ungleichheiten in der Inanspruchnahme medizinischer und präventiver Leistungen in Deutschland analysiert und statistisch erklärt. Die Ergebnisse belegen...

This analysis provides important insights about patient’s attitudes and understanding of benefits of breast cancer prevention and highlights the importance of the availability of an organised screening programme for screening differences across European countries. </AbstractSection> Copyright Springer-Verlag...

We determine the level and development of deficits during the period from 1998 to 2004 in German public hospitals and analyze the reasons for these deficits. Furthermore we discuss their implications for economic policy. In 2004, the deficits reach a peak of 3 billion Euro. Fixed effects...

Background: Economic theory strongly suggests that better information about the quality of care affects patients’ choice of health service providers. However, we have little empirical evidence about the impact of information provided on provider’s choice in Germany. Problem: In Germany, we...

This paper presents the first cross-country estimation of needs-adjusted income and education-related inequalities in the use of a whole set of preventive care treatments. Analysis is based on the first three waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement (SHARE) for individuals aged 50...