Willingness to pay functions for emergency ambulance services

In the case of a medical emergency, a failure to provide timely care could have serious health consequences and even cause death. When the waiting time increases, the patient perceives the loss of well-being associated with the lack of primary care. Considering the willingness to pay (WTP) for avoiding human suffering in the context of emergency medical services (EMS) within the impact assessment of prehospital care is a relatively new research topic. This paper evaluates, through discrete choice models, the WTP for avoiding the externality associated with the human suffering experienced by the patient who does not receive immediate attention in a medical emergency. The cost of the service, the waiting time of the service, the time elapsed at the time of making the decision, the patient's condition and the time to aggravate are relevant to define the WTP in the context of EMS. Heterogeneity in the WTP was captured by the inclusion of some socioeconomic attributes and proxy variables to evaluate several levels of patient severity. The results are intended to demonstrate the relevance that this externality could have in the planning, operation, management of the emergency system and in the coordination of public policies aimed at providing efficient services with a better distribution of resources.