Informal health care payments in greece: A flexible mimic model adaptation

Abstract

The healthcare system in Greece faces challenges based on underfunding, lack of staff, and the SARS–CoV–2 pandemic, have severe consequences like informal payments because of preventive and tackling measures absence. Even though the MIMIC model, normally employed in shadow economy size estimation, is for the first time used to estimate informal health payments, which determine our paper's originality. Based on primary survey data, an estimation approach combines the calculation of an unofficial health payment index with a flexible MIMIC model, considering causes and indicators’ transformations of patients’ black payments. We apply these transformations to correct variables’ consequences on informal health payments indicators (IPs*). Results showed to use estimated model parameters and derived informal payments indexes because of further research and especially for the collection of irregular health payments indicators and related variables, including information on IPs.