Health provider choice and implicit rationing in healthcare: Evidence from Mozambique

An analysis of health provider choice together with a model of implicit rationing in healthcare is presented using Mozambique as a case study. We make use of the Mozambican Household Surveys on Living Conditions 2002/3 and 2008/9. Updated and sometimes contrasting results with respect to similar analyses on older Mozambican data are obtained. In particular, we find that the role of income is more important in 2002/3 and in 2008/9 than it was in 1996/7. In consequence, we further expand the analysis by studying how socioeconomic disparities among other factors influence implicit rationing in healthcare. When using the 2008/9 survey only, moderate evidence that some sort of implicit healthcare rationing is in place is found; that is, some people do not seek care because they foresee they will not be granted quality healthcare access or treatment.