Impacts of Norway's extended free choice reform on waiting times and hospital visits
研究挪威扩大自由选择改革对公立医院等待时间、就诊次数及患者合并症的影响，发现改革未显著缩短等待时间或增加就诊量，且私立机构患者合并症在非侵入性诊断服务中较低。
Norway's extended free choice (EFC) reform extends the patient's choice of publicly funded hospitals for treatment to authorized private institutions (EFC providers). We study the effects of the reform on waiting times, number of visits, and patients' Charlson Comorbidity Index scores in public hospitals. We use a difference-in-differences model to compare changes over time for public hospitals with and without EFC providers in the catchment area. Focusing on five prevalent somatic services, we find that the EFC reform did not exert pressure on public hospitals to stimulate shorter waiting times and more visits. Moreover, we do not find that the sum of public and private visits increased. When we compare patient comorbidity between public hospitals and EFC providers, we find that for non-invasive diagnostic services, patient comorbidity is lower in EFC providers. For surgical services, we detect no difference in patient comorbidities between public and EFC providers.