Income, location, and the demand for health care from public, nonprofit, and for-profit hospitals.

Although, empirically, for-profit hospitals serve few poor and indigent patients, they may be able to shift capital more quickly than hospitals of other ownership types, thereby spatially avoiding poor patients. However, in a market with a relatively high proportion of for-profit hospitals, spatial avoidance of poor patients is not possible because spatial competition will exist in non-poor areas. The study examines hospital choice for maternity care in a market with many for-profits using a gravity model or conditional logit. The analysis shows that poor and Medicaid populations choose for-profit hospitals overall. Income, along with distance, is an important factor in hospital choice.