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The sustainability of European health care systems: beyond income and aging

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  • Fabio Pammolli
  • Massimo Riccaboni
  • Laura Magazzini

Abstract

During the last 30 years, health care expenditure (HCE) has been growing much more rapidly than GDP in OECD countries. In this paper, we review the determinants of HCE dynamics in Europe, taking into account the role of income, aging population, technological progress, female labor participation and public budgetary variables. We show that HCE is a multifaceted phenomenon where demographic, social, economic, technological and institutional factors all play an important role. The comparison of total, public and private HCE reveals an imbalance of European welfare toward the care of the elderly. European Governments should increasingly rely on pluralistic systems to balance sustainability and access and equilibrate the distribution of resources across the functions of the public welfare system. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2012

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  • Fabio Pammolli & Massimo Riccaboni & Laura Magazzini, 2012. "The sustainability of European health care systems: beyond income and aging," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 13(5), pages 623-634, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eujhec:v:13:y:2012:i:5:p:623-634
    DOI: 10.1007/s10198-011-0337-8
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    6. Di Matteo, Livio & Cantarero-Prieto, David, 2018. "The Determinants of Public Health Expenditures: Comparing Canada and Spain," MPRA Paper 87800, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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    8. Michael Osti & Johannes Steyrer, 2017. "A perspective on the health care expenditures for defensive medicine," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 18(4), pages 399-404, May.
    9. Pammolli, Fabio & Salerno, Nicola, 2011. "Le differenze regionali nella governance della spesa sanitaria. La sanità alla sfide del federalismo: il modello SaniRegio di CeRM [Regional differences in the governance of health care expenditure," MPRA Paper 36934, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. José Castillo-Manzano & Mercedes Castro-Nuño & Xavier Fageda, 2014. "Can health public expenditure reduce the tragic consequences of road traffic accidents? The EU-27 experience," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(6), pages 645-652, July.
    11. Renuga Nagarajan & Aurora A. C. Teixeira & Sandra Silva, 2017. "The Impact Of Population Ageing On Economic Growth: A Bibliometric Survey," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 62(02), pages 275-296, June.
    12. Lakomaa, Erik & Sanandaji, Tino, 2017. "Can Community Driven Care be integrated in the European Welfare System? Institutional Challenges and Historical Lessons," SSE Working Paper Series in Economic History 2017:3, Stockholm School of Economics.
    13. Renuga Nagarajan & Aurora A.C. Teixeira & Sandra T. Silva, 2013. "The impact of population ageing on economic growth: an in-depth bibliometric analysis," FEP Working Papers 505, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    14. Fabio Pammolli & Nicola Carmine Salerno, 2011. "Le differenze regionali nella governance della spesa sanitaria - SaniRegio-2011," Working Papers CERM 02-2011, Competitività, Regole, Mercati (CERM).
    15. Munjae Lee & Sewon Park & Kyu-Sung Lee, 2019. "What Are the Features of Successful Medical Device Start-Ups? Evidence from KOREA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-17, April.
    16. Kirsten Beedholm & Kirsten Frederiksen & Anne‐Marie Skovsgaard Frederiksen & Kirsten Lomborg, 2015. "Attitudes to a robot bathtub in Danish elder care: A hermeneutic interview study," Nursing & Health Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(3), pages 280-286, September.
    17. Sónia Morgado, 2014. "Does health promote economic growth? Portuguese case study: from dictatorship to full democracy," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(6), pages 591-598, July.
    18. Joohun Han & Chanjin Chung, 2021. "Impact of Aging and Underemployment on Income Disparity between Agricultural and Non-Agricultural Households," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-15, October.
    19. Allen, Nicola & Pichler, Franz & Wang, Tina & Patel, Sundip & Salek, Sam, 2013. "Development of archetypes for non-ranking classification and comparison of European National Health Technology Assessment systems," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(3), pages 305-312.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health care expenditure; Sustainability; Aging population; Unbalanced growth; Income elasticity; Welfare; H51-Government Expenditures and Health;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H51 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Health

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