Government Expenditures and Health Care Satisfaction

Abstract

It is not surprise that both government and health care organization want patients to be satisfied with the care they receive. The purpose of this paper is to examine the major factors that determine patient satisfaction with the quality and availability of health care services and with the quality and provision of health care services provided by hospitals and physicians in Canada, with particular attentiion being paid to the relationship between public sector health expenditure and patient satisfaction. I address this question with the use of Canadian Community Health Surveys (CCHS) and Canadian Institute fo Health Information (CIHI) for the years 2003 and 2009/10. My results show that age, gender, household income, life stress, self-perceived health status, level of education and immigrant status are determinants of satisfaction with the quality and availability of the health care services, while only are, self-perceived health status and household income are the determinants of patients'satisfaction with the quality and provision of the heatlh care services provided by hospitals and physicians. My analysis also points out that government expenditures on health care services are positively related to patients's satisfaction with the quality and availability of the total health care services. However, patients' satisfaction with the quality and provision of hospitals of physician care are not associated with government expenditures on hospital or physicians