OBJECTIVES

The 2008 financial crisis raised concerns over the probability of rise in death, illness and disability in European OECD countries, with increased ‘Unmet needs for medical examination’ from 3.1 to 3.4 percent between 2008-2012. As the concave relationship between income and health gradually flattens out with lowered effectiveness for an additional dollar of income, improving health on a decreasing scale, finding measures to address increasing unmet health needs is pivotal. This study aims to investigate whether the General Practitioners (GPs), as healthcare service providers, can mitigate the impacts of economic crisis on health outcomes.

METHODS

The data for 20 high-income European OECD countries (2006 – 2013), extracted from Eurostat, were analyzed using panel data analysis, and the variables for different cross-sections over a time span were observed using random effects and fixed effects model(s). F-test, calculated using R values adjusted for number of covariates in different models, was used to test the nested models and results were analyzed using Stata-v11.

RESULTS

The long-term unemployment, resulting from crisis, is significantly associated, strongly and positively, with ‘Unmet needs for medical examination’ for all levels of income (p < 0.05 to p < 0.01). The supply of an additional GP per 1,000 population reduces the unmet health needs, but gradually decreasing, from 0.27, 0.22, 0.15 percent across the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd income quintiles to 0.18, 0.12 and 0.12 percent, respectively. But this doesn’t hold true for the 4^th income quintile.

CONCLUSIONS

During economic crises, the supply of GPs can mitigate the adverse effects of long-term unemployment, but for the lower income people only. However, such mitigating effects diminished with increasing income, and had no significance for the highest income population. The presence of GPs significantly contributes in controlling the access to tertiary care, by addressing the health issues at primary level.