Lennon Conor, Maclean Johanna Catherine, Teltser Keith
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, United States of America.
George Mason University, United States of America; NBER, United States of America; IZA, Germany.
J Health Econ. 2025 Jan;99:102941. doi: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2024.102941. Epub 2024 Nov 23.
We examine whether ridesharing provides a meaningful transportation alternative for those who require ongoing healthcare. Specifically, we combine variation in UberX entry across the U.S. with the Treatment Episode Data Set to estimate the effect of ridesharing on admissions to substance use disorder treatment. People needing such treatment report transportation as a barrier to receiving care. We find that UberX entry into a Core Based Statistical Area has no effect on the overall number of treatment admissions. However, we find a decline in non-intensive outpatient treatment which is fully offset by an increase in intensive outpatient treatment. Given the required relative frequency of non-intensive and intensive outpatient treatment in terms of visits per week, our findings indicate that UberX helps to reduce transportation barriers to accessing healthcare. Event-studies show parallel trends in outcomes before UberX entry and results are robust to numerous sensitivity checks.
我们研究了拼车服务是否为那些需要长期医疗保健的人提供了有意义的交通选择。具体而言，我们将美国各地优步X服务进入情况的差异与治疗事件数据集相结合，以估计拼车服务对物质使用障碍治疗入院人数的影响。需要此类治疗的人报告称交通是接受治疗的障碍。我们发现，优步X进入基于核心统计区对治疗入院的总数没有影响。然而，我们发现非强化门诊治疗有所下降，但强化门诊治疗的增加完全抵消了这一下降。鉴于非强化和强化门诊治疗每周所需的相对就诊频率，我们的研究结果表明，优步X有助于减少获得医疗保健的交通障碍。事件研究显示，在优步X进入之前，结果呈现平行趋势，并且结果在多次敏感性检验中都很稳健。
