This paper studies the features that characterize consumer behaviour in the demand for private health insurance and the explanatory variables that effect this demand. We specify a discrete demand with two alternatives: purchasing a private insurance (having double coverage) and not purchasing. The consu-mer faces the uncertain possibility of experiencing a loss due to disease or ill-health. We construct a demand model where the consumer compares the expected utility both under insurance and without insurance. Such utilities are a function of the different variables insofar as they allow it to be so. The analysis assumes several patterns for different groups. We present the es-timation results of the probability of insurance choice and the effects of shocks in the explicative variables. The results suggest the importance of in-come and time cost in determining the medical insurance choice. The esti-mation of insurance expenditure of the sample-selection model shows that income has no effect. By contrast, the level of education, self-employment and the number of insured members do appear to have a positive relationship with this expenditure.

Keywords: private health insurance, discrete choice.