Patient satisfaction versus political support: Korea's drug-dispensing law revisited

ABSTRACT

In 2000, Korea enacted a controversial law prohibiting doctors from dispensing drugs. Doctors have opposed this law, and in theory, the law inconveniences patients. We assessed the relationship between patients' satisfaction with drug dispensation and their overall support for the law by using a logit model to determine the effects of the law on patients and which patients are likely to support the law. We employed random digit dialing and obtained a sample of 540 adults who had used drugs since the law was enacted. We collected the data through phone interviews. The results indicate that the respondents were generally dissatisfied with the law regardless of sociodemographic or regional characteristics. However, with other factors controlled for, those respondents from the same region as the ruling political party were significantly more likely to support the law. This implies that regional politics influenced the policymaking process through which the law was crafted and enacted.