Does Government subsidy for costs of medical andpharmaceutical services result in higher serviceutilization by older widowed women in Australia?

Background:
In Australia, Medicare, the national health insurance system which includes the MedicalBenefits Scheme (MBS) and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), provides partialcoverage for most medical services and pharmaceuticals. For war widows, the Department ofVeterans’ Affairs (DVA) covers almost the entire cost of their health care. The objective ofthis study was to test whether war widows have higher usage of medical services andpharmaceuticals.
Methods:
Data were from 730 women aged 70-84 years (mostly World War II widows) participating inthe Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health who consented to data linkage toMedicare Australia. The main outcome measures were PBS costs, claims, co-payments andscripts presented, and MBS total costs, claims and gap payments for medical services in2005.
Results:
There was no difference between the war widows and similarly aged widows in theAustralian population without DVA support on use of medical services. While war widowshad more pharmaceutical prescriptions filled they generated equivalent total costs, number ofclaims and co-payments for pharmaceuticals than widows without DVA support.
Conclusions:
Older war widows are not using more medical services and pharmaceuticals than other olderAustralian women despite having financial incentives to do so.