The unmet demand for health services: a vital component in planning.

Consideration of unmet need as well as effective demand for health services is desirable for planning but frequently ignored. This paper reports an analysis of the findings from a national health survey conducted in Chile to obtain information on both met and unmet demand. The joint analysis proved feasible and highly informative. Total felt need tended to be relatively constant among population groups in comparison with differences in actual services utilization. Moreover, exceptions to this general finding revealed patterns that should improve our insights for health planning.