Health care utilization and immigration in Spain

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze the use of health care services by immigrants in Spain. Using a nationally representative health survey from 2006-2007 that allows overcoming problems present in previous studies and negative binomial and hurdle models, it is found that there is no statistically significant difference in the patterns of visits to physicians and hospital stays between migrants and natives in Spain. However, immigrants have a lower access to specialists and visit emergency rooms with higher frequency than nationals.health care; immigration; Spain; access; equity