Investigating the significance of insurance and income on health service utilization across generational cohorts

Ensuring access to health services is critical to consumers’ well-being across generational cohorts. Based on pre-disposing characteristics (that is, gender, ethnicity) and financial resources (that is, insurance and income) certain consumers may face barriers to access. In attempt to improve access to health care, this article presents an empirical investigation into how health service utilization can be affected by enabling variables, namely insurance and income. Utilizing proprietary secondary data from a major metropolitan hospital in the United States, the article investigates the following questions: How does insurance and income enable service utilization? How do pre-disposing characteristics of a consumer hinder service access? How does the effect of income and insurance moderate the effect of pre-disposing factors on service utilization? Finally, how do these effects on service utilization vary across generational cohorts? Results indicate that insurance and income may enable access to service, yet this effect is varied among different demographic cohorts and generational groups. The article concludes by offering implications for marketers and policymakers.