The joint demand for health care,leisure, and commodities: Implications for health care finance and access in Vietnam

This paper explores linkages between the demand for health care providers and the consumption of food, non-food goods, and leisure in Vietnam, using a mixed continuous/discrete dependent variable model. Cross-price elasticities calculated from the model suggest there are strong substitution effects between health care, leisure, and certain commodities. The model allows us to explore the implications of replacing user fees with alternative forms of health care finance, such as commodity taxes. In particular, the results suggest financing public health care services with a non-food sales tax rather than user fees would be more progressive and would improve access to care.