The Impact of National Health Insurance on Dentists' Manpower Structure in Taiwan

Many foreign scholars have found that the dentists' practice patterns have been affected by health insurance. Dentists tend to practice at the area where health insurance is popular. Some scholars even proposed that the government should provide dental insurance to people, so that it could resolve the surplus of dental manpower. Hence, there exists very close relationship between health insurance and dentists' manpower. However, there are no significant publications in the interactions of global budget reimbursement system and the dentists' manpower. The data included in this study will include the dentists manpower file of Ministry of Health, the practice files at the local governments and the dental association, population socio-economic and demographic characteristics collected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, etc. This study will explore the supply of dentists and their practice pattern changes between 1990 and 1999. It will especially assess the structure changes of dentists' manpower after the implementation of national health insurance and after the global budget. The results of this study will provide references for health organizations in terms of decision making and monitoring the dentist supply.

Project ID:PG8910-0272
External Project ID:DOH89-TD-1197