Private Health Expenditures in Russian regions: Determinants and Consequences

Private health expenditures in Russia (38–48% of total health expenditures, depending on the source) significantly exceed OECD countries level (27%). High private spending, in turn, affects healthcare system performance. The paper analyzes determinants and consequences of private health spending in Russian regions. The authors use data on 80 Russian regions during 2006–2014 and apply panel data models to analyze determinants and consequences of private health expenditures. The authors found that private and public health expenditure are complimentary in Russia: 1% increase in public health spending results in 0,17% increase in private health expenditures. The latter also increase with wealth, income inequality and prevalence of healthy and active population. The optimal level of private health expenditures is 34–40 %, but it might be overestimated because the authors did not consider public health expenditures at the federal level.