Healthcare Spending

In this paper, we continue the international comparison of health insurance systems by examining healthcare spending in the United States and comparing it to another developed country (Sweden) and one underdeveloped or developing country (South Africa). In the first section, we discuss the healthcare spending of the U.S., in the second we examine Sweden’s healthcare expenditures and discuss how U.S. and Swedish spending differ, and in the third, we describe healthcare spending in South Africa and discuss how it is similar or different to the U.S.

This study examines the relationship between health expenditures and economic growth in Turkey during the period 1975-2019 by using the Fourier Engle-Granger cointegration and the Fourier Toda-Yamamoto causality tests. Firstly, the Fourier ADF unit root test with fractional frequency is employed in order to investigate the stationary of the variables, and it is determined that both are I(1). Then, the Fourier Engle-Granger cointegration test revealed that there is a unidirectional long-run relationship from real GDP per capita to health expenditures. Accordingly, a one percent increase in economic growth causes a 0.32 percent increase in health expenditures.

Background: As middle-income countries become more affluent, economically sophisticated and productive, health expenditure patterns are likely to change. Other socio-demographic and political changes that accompany rapid economic growth are also likely to influence health spending and financial protection. Methods: This study investigates the relationship between growth on per-capita healthcare expenditure and gross domestic product (GDP) in a group of 27 large middle-income economies and compares findings with those of 24 high-income economies from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) group. This comparison uses national accounts data from 1995-2014. We hypothesize that the aggregated income elasticity of health expenditure in middle-income countries would be less than one (meaning healthcare is a normal good). An initial exploratory analysis tests between fixed-effects and random-effects model specifications. A fixed-effects model with time-fixed effects is implemented to assess the relationship between the two measures. Unit root, Hausman and serial correlation tests are conducted to determine model fit. Additional explanatory variables are introduced in different model specifications to test the robustness of our regression results. We include the out-of-pocket (OOP) share of health spending in each model to study the potential role of financial protection in our sample of high-and middle-income countries. The first-difference of study variables is implemented to address non-stationarity and cointegration properties. Results: The elasticity of per-capita health expenditure and GDP growth is positive and statistically significant among sampled middle-income countries (51 per unit-growth in GDP) and high-income countries (50 per unit-growth in GDP). In contrast with previous research that has found that income elasticity of health spending in middle-income countries is larger than in high-income countries, our findings show that elasticity estimates can change if different criteria are used to assemble a more homogenous group of middle-income countries. Financial protection differences between middle-and high-income countries, however, are not associated with their respective income elasticity of health spending. ` Conclusion: The study findings show that in spite of the rapid economic growth experienced by the sampled middle-income countries, the aggregated income elasticity of health expenditure in them is less than one, and equals that of high-income countries. Citation: Vargas Bustamante A, Shimoga SV. Comparing the income elasticity of health spending in middle-income and high-income countries: the role of financial protection.

Öz Çalmann amac 47 Avrupa ve Merkez Asya ülkesine ilikin 1996-2014 döneminde salk harcamalarnn ekonomik büyüme üzerindeki etkisini ölçmeye yöneliktir. Çalmann ampirik analizinde iki farkl metodoloji kullanlmtr. Öncelikle sabit etkiler modeli Driscoll-Kraay Standart Hatalar tahmincisi kullanlarak tahmin edilmitir. Ardndan ki Aamal Sistem GMM yöntemi kullanlarak katsaylar tahmin edilmitir. Yaplan analizler sonucu elde edilen bulgular birbirine paralel niteliktedir. Her iki analizde de kii bana salk harcamalar ekonomik büyümeyi istatistiksel olarak anlaml ve pozitif etkilemektedir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Salk Harcamalar, Ekonomik Büyüme, Sabit Etkiler Modeli, Dinamik Panel Veri Modeli The Effect of Health Expenditures on Economic Growth: The Case of Europe and Central Asia Countries Abstract The aim of the study is to measure the impact of health expenditures on economic growth during the period of 1996-2014 for 47 European and Central Asian countries. Two different methodologies were used in the empirical analysis of the study. First, the fixed effect model was estimated

This study investigates the relationship among environmental quality, economic growth and health expenditure in 47 African countries using both static (pooled OLS and fixed/random effect) and dynamic (system GMM) estimation methods. Data covering the period 2000 to 2018 are employed and three proxies (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane emission) are used to capture the effect of environmental quality. The findings of the study indicate evidence of a positive and significant effect of economic growth on health expenditure, while also revealing a positively significant relationship between poor environmental quality and health expenditure. The empirical findings of this study suggest that of the three proxies of environmental quality carbon dioxide emission had the highest effect on healthcare expenditure while economic growth significantly increased health expenditure across the five African regions (North Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa). ...

Bu calisma, Turkiye'de 1975-2019 yillari arasinda saglik harcamalari ile ekonomik buyume arasindaki iliskiyi Fourier Engle-Granger esbutunlesme ve Fourier Toda-Yamamoto nedensellik testleri araciligiyla incelemektedir. Ilk olarak, degiskenlerin duraganlik durumlarini arastirmak icin kesirli frekansli Fourier ADF birim kok testi uygulanmis ve her iki degiskenin de I(1) oldugu tespit edilmistir. Daha sonra uygulanan Fourier Engle-Granger esbutunlesme testi, degiskenler arasinda kisi basina reel GSYIH’den saglik harcamalarina dogru olmak uzere tek yonlu uzun donemli iliski oldugunu ortaya koymustur. Buna gore, ekonomik buyumede meydana gelen yuzde birlik, artis saglik harcamalarinin yuzde 0,32 artmasina neden olmaktadir. Fourier Toda-Yamamoto nedensellik testinden elde edilen bulgular da Fourier Engle-Granger esbutunlesme testine ait sonuclari desteklemektedir. Sonuc olarak, bu calisma Turkiye’de gelir gorusu hipotezinin ve Wagner yasasinin gecerli olduguna isaret etmektedir.

Objective: This study aimed to reveal the impacts of the selected healthcare spending indicators on the selected health
outcomes for OECD countries.
Materials and Methods: In this study, the data for OECD countries were analyzed by stepwise multiple regression analysis.
Healthcare spending as a share of GDP, public and private healthcare spending per capita and pharmaceutical spending per
capita were used as independent variables; infant and maternal mortality, male and female life expectancy at birth, and in 80
years, and self-reported health were used as dependent variables.
Results: According to the results, it was found out that public healthcare spending per capita has a significant impact on
maternal and infant mortality, male and female life expectancy at birth and in 80 years. Also, private healthcare spending
per capita was found as an important determinant of self-reported health.
Conclusion: Based on the results, it can be suggested that it is necessary to increase the public support for mother-child
health services to reduce maternal and infant mortality; and for services for improvement and promotion of health to increase
life expectancy at birth and in 80 years. It is considered that improvements in the minimum income levels of individuals and
increasing government promotion within the scope of the complementary health insurance offered by the private sector will
have a positive impact on the individuals’ perception of health status.

Japan has been aging faster than other industrialized nations, and its experience offers useful lessons to others. Japan has been willing to expand its welfare state with a long-term care (LTC) insurance to finance home care and nursing home care for frail elderly. As Ikegami shows, it created new facilities and expanded specialized staffing for home care, developed a country-wide assessment system and shifted responsibilities between the central and local authorities over that assessment and the determination of co-payments for LTC. Faced with rapid growth in demand for LTC, the government felt the need for new cost control measures. The Japanese experience illustrates that new social policies take time to develop. There is often a need to adjust. But there are also other lessons. The main one is that there is no direct relation between the degree of population aging and total health spending. While aging requires adjustments in the organization of care, and expanding LTC for frail...

This study used panel data regression analysis to evaluate the long-term effects of several measures of U.S. education expenditure on unemployment rates in 50 states and Washington D.C. over 25 years. The data included state-level statistics for fiscal effort, graduation rates, education spending per pupil, gross state product per capita, welfare spending, health spending, political party affiliation, union versus nonunion states, and unemployment rates. Results find that the best way to effectively reduce unemployment is investment in improving the quality of human capital through funding education. Findings specifically conclude that over the long term, investment in human capital through education as defined by per-pupil spending and health services could play a significant role in reducing unemployment rates.

In this paper, we examine the healthcare systems of two developed countries: the United States (ranked 11th of 11 countries surveyed in international comparison surveys) and the United Kingdom (ranked number 1). Our discussion begins with an overview of each country’s healthcare system and concludes with a discussion of the similarities and differences between the two systems. Specifically, the following topics will be addressed: 1) the government’s role; 2) the key governing entities; 3) who and what is covered; 4) how the system is financed; and 5) how health care services are organized, financed, and delivered (Thomson, Osborn, Squires, and Jun, 2013). The goal of this comparison is to enhance our understanding of healthcare in the United States and another developed country (Holtz, 2013; Thomson et al., 2013).