Date and Time
October 28, 2009
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Availability
Open to the public
No RSVP required

Speaker
Oddvar Kaarboe - Stanford University

We compare the distributional consequences of the different waiting times initiatives introduced in Norway and Scotland. In Scotland a horizontal waiting-time prioritisation was introduced through a focus on maximum waiting times. In Norway vertical waiting-times prioritisation was introduced as a supplement to horizontal prioritisation. We investigate the distributional consequences of these initiatives using national administrative datasets from before and after each of these reforms. To control for changes in case-mix, we find an exact match for each post-reform patient in the pre-reform period in terms of age, gender, diagnoses and treatment received. We then examine how the differences in waiting times between these patient-pairs varies with respect to patient and condition characteristics and with respect to the priority that would be accorded to this treatment by the Norwegian prioritisation algorithm. The analysis shows that the prioritisation pattern has not changed much after the Norwegian reform was introduced. In Scotland however, we see some substantial distributional effects. Waiting times have increased below the median and decreased dramatically above the median. The principal beneficiaries of this redistribution have been women, patients with several co-morbidities and patients with eye conditions or diseases of the musculoskeletal or respiratory system. Amongst the relative gainers are those that would have been accorded low priority under the Norwegian vertical priority system.