Health care utilisation in France: An analysis of the main drivers of health care use inequalities related to migration

In using a general health survey representative of the French population, the 2006 and 2008 French Health, health care and insurance survey, this study explores inequalities in health care utilization between immigrants and natives. Our objective is to highlight the most important factors generating health care use inequalities relating to immigration in using non-linear decomposition. Estimation results reveal that for equivalent health care needs, immigrants present a lower demand for GP and specialist care than the French population. The implementation of non-linear decompositions suggests that health care use inequalities between French and immigrant populations are for the most part attributable to differences in the distribution of observable characteristics between both populations. In particular, immigrant lower health coverage represents the first factor generating inequalities in the propensity to contact a GP while education and income are the most important drivers of inequalities in the propensity to contact a specialist. (c) 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.